


Vampires Will Never Hurt You

by panicked_introvert, The General Phanchild (panicked_introvert)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Arguing, Awkward Dates, Based on a My Chemical Romance Song, Best Friends, Boys Kissing, Character Turned Into Vampire, Christmas Movies, Cooking, Crying, Dan Howell Is Not A YouTuber, Diners, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Food, Gay Dan Howell, Gay Male Character, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Human/Vampire Relationship, Injury, Inspired by Music, Insults, Kissing, Late Night Conversations, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Major Character Injury, Masturbation, Men Crying, Minor Injuries, Pansexual Character, Pansexual Phil Lester, Pet Names, Phil Lester Is A Sweetheart, Phil Lester Is Not A YouTuber, Pining, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Possibly Unrequited Love, Protective Dan Howell, Protectiveness, Rejection, Romantic Friendship, Roommates, Scary Movies, Shapeshifting, Sharing a Bed, Shy Phil Lester, Supernatural Elements, True Love, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-03-10 04:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panicked_introvert/pseuds/panicked_introvert, https://archiveofourown.org/users/panicked_introvert/pseuds/The%20General%20Phanchild
Summary: "and if the sun comes up will it tear the skin right off our bones//and then as razor sharp white teeth rip out our necks..."Having a vampire for a roommate has its advantages and disadvantages. Especially when the vampire in question is overtly gay for you and has the maturity of a five-year-old.





	1. Chapter 1

Daniel Howell had a slight obsession with vampires.

The vampires in question were a forbidden topic in London. The clan of blood-craving beings remained in the woods near the town, and they were mostly harmless if you didn’t bother them. But anybody who happened to invade their territory would instantly be ripped apart, the blood drained from their body in a few minutes. Therefore, the vampires were rarely brought up in conversation, and anybody who considered them to be good was ostracized and seen as a traitor.

Dan, however, didn’t care. The introverted and shy twenty-year-old would often make his way past the wrought-iron fence that separated the dark and foreboding forest from the rest of the city, wearing a cloth mask to conceal the lower half of his face as watched for any signs of the mysterious beings. He had never seen a vampire in person before, and he had made it his one life goal to do so. The brunet had decided after several months that it was time-- he would sneak past the gates and encounter a vampire for himself.

That night, Dan filled his grey canvas backpack with all the things he needed-- a wooden stake, a small disposable camera, a blowtorch, a crowbar, and a flashlight. Donning his signature cloth mask-- black and shaped like a standard surgery mask, with a white curved line to serve as a smile-- he swung the backpack onto one shoulder and clambered out of the window of his apartment onto the rickety metal fire escape. He tried his best to be quiet as he climbed towards the street below which was only illuminated by the dim streetlights, as he didn’t feel like waking up the people in the other apartments and getting screamed at for an hour. When he finally reached the pavement, he set off at a brisk pace, his black combat boots thumping softly on the ground with every step, accompanied by the buzzing of the lamp-posts and the soft woosh of the wind. His hands were lodged firmly into the pockets of his hoodie, the hood pulled over his head and his eyes darting about the darkened streets on the lookout for anybody who would ask him what he was doing.

When Dan finally reached the gate that surrounded the forest, he stayed in the shadows to avoid the police officers guarding one of the main gates, getting several feet away from them before pulling the blowtorch out of his backpack. He began heating the middle of two of the metal bars, shifting between the two of them every few seconds to make sure they warmed at the same rate. He was sure the hiss of the blowtorch would alert the police officers, but surprisingly it didn’t. Once both the bars were glowing hot, he used the crowbar to force them apart, wrenching the formerly narrow gap into a space large enough to fit through. Stuffing the blowtorch and crowbar back in his bag, he climbed through the gap and hurried into the woods, quickly disguising himself among the trees thanks to his dark clothing. He moved slower once he could rely on the cover of the trees to mask him completely, pulling out his flashlight and turning it on as he avoided stepping on sticks and fallen leaves. 

After several minutes, Dan finally heard something new-- the gentle flapping of wings high above him. He practically dove behind a tree, watching as a large black bat fluttered down and hung upside down from a branch several feet away. Several agonizingly slow seconds passed; then, suddenly, with a large puff of dark blue smoke, the bat turned into a human-shaped figure standing upright on the ground. It was a male, with pale skin and sleek black hair, his big blue eyes wide and alert. He was dressed in a smart navy blue suit with a silver tie that sparkled in the moonlight. In fact, the only sign he wasn’t human was the barely noticeable scar on the side of his neck in the clear shape of two pointy fangs.

Stifling a gasp in his palm, Dan began fishing in his backpack for his camera to get a picture-- there was absolutely no chance he would see something like this again. However, he had only just turned away for a split second when he heard a soft voice visibly laced with evil speaking behind him. “Why, hello there… what do we have here?” Dan whipped his head around and almost had a heart attack when he saw the male vampire standing two inches away from him. With a shriek, he stumbled backwards, holding his backpack in front of his chest as some sort of way to defend himself. The vampire chuckled quietly, stepping forward as Dan continued to back away. “Don’t be shy… I won’t hurt you  _ that _ much…”

“G-get away from me!” Dan cried, shaking his head desperately as he tried rummaging in his bag for something,  _ anything, _ to help him get out of this situation. “Please, I promise I won’t tell anybody!”

“Oh, love… this isn’t about you telling anybody about anything. This is about my fangs and your neck.” The vampire grinned, revealing two sharp fangs at the front of his mouth. “Now, come on… get over here. You wouldn’t want me to have to chase you, would you?”

“No!” Dan’s fingers wrapped around the stake in his bag, pulling it out and brandishing it in front of him. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Hmm… you came prepared? Well, the only way that little piece of wood will do any good is if you actually get it in me. And believe me, you’ll be bled dry before you even get a chance to do that,” the vampire chuckled. 

“Don’t do this! Please, I haven’t done anything wrong! I just…”

“Oh! How silly of me… I haven’t properly introduced myself!” the vampire grinned, reaching out lightning-fast and grabbing hold of Dan’s wrist. “I’m Phil! Would you care to tell me your name too?”

“Get off!” Dan stabbed Phil in the arm with the stake over and over in an attempt to make him let go, repeating the process even when the sharpened piece of wood did absolutely nothing. “Please, I’ll do anything!”

“You’re not going to tell me who you are? That’s fine… you’ll taste just as good no matter what.” Phil shoved Dan hard in the chest, sending him tumbling to the ground. The stake tumbled several feet away, far out of Dan’s reach. Before Dan could scramble back up and attempt to run, Phil was on top of him, pinning his wrists to the ground with a psychotic grin decorating his pale features. “Now, don’t struggle… that’ll just make it take longer.”

“No! Please, don’t do this!” Dan was sobbing at this point, fruitlessly struggling against Phil’s iron grip. “I’ll do anything, just please let me go!” He let out a shriek as Phil began leaning close to his neck, shaking his head as tears blurred his vision. His throat already ached from screaming, his hands embedded with splinters from the stake, his eyes stinging from the tears. “No, no, no! Get away, don’t touch me!” He tensed up as he felt Phil’s mouth pressing against his skin, pathetic whimpers leaving his lips as he braced for the unavoidable prick as his fangs entered his flesh. However, after several seconds, Dan realized Phil hadn’t bitten him yet-- his mouth was simply resting against his neck, his breath tickling his skin just the slightest bit. Cracking one eye open, he saw that Phil was gazing up at him with something unrecognizable in his wide blue eyes. He froze, not sure what he was doing, but too scared to ask.

Then, without speaking, Phil sat up and began fumbling with the ties on Dan’s mask, pulling it off his face and dropping it into the grass. Dan couldn’t help but let out a confused little squeak, blinking away the tears that were blurring his vision as he looked up at the vampire, still much too frightened to even attempt to get up and run away. To his shock, Phil smiled at him-- not an evil one, but one filled with some sort of positive emotion that Dan couldn’t quite recognize. The brunet flinched as Phil reached down and gently caressed his cheek, screwing his eyes shut as his cold hands sent shivers up his spine. “No…”

“Don’t be scared…” Phil spoke in a soft voice, running his hand up into Dan’s hair and giving the curls a soft tug. Dan winced and tried to jerk his head away, keeping his eyes closed as Phil tilted his jaw back up. “Shh, don’t do that… let me look at you.” 

“Please let me go… don’t do this, let me go…” Dan begged with a broken sob. “Please, I’ll do anything…”

Phil simply stared at Dan for a few more moments, breathing quietly as he blinked slowly. Then, quite suddenly, he leaned forward all the way, kissing Dan square on the mouth. Dan let out a muffled squeak, his eyes flying wide open as his entire body stiffened up.  _ What the fuck is he doing? _ He tried to squirm out from beneath Phil, but the taller male was just too heavy. When Phil pulled away for a split second to catch his breath, he attempted to scream for help; however, Phil quickly kissed him once more, hooking his fangs into his plump bottom lip and tugging on it as he bit down hard. Dan winced and squeezed his eyes shut as he desperately tried to shove Phil off of him, waves of disgust rolling over his body.  _ Get off of me, get off, I don’t like it…. _

Finally, after several agonizing minutes, Dan managed to shove Phil off of him, staggering to his feet as his face grew hot with shame. Phil seemed to be completely satisfied, a little smirk decorating his pale features as he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. “You taste good…”

“W-what the fuck!” Dan screamed, too angry and embarrassed to be frightened of the vampire. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why the hell would you kiss me?”

“Because I wanted to,” Phil replied simply, as though he had just been asked what time it was. 

“I… I can’t believe you! Do you seriously think it’s okay to just pin somebody down and make out with them like that?” Dan snapped, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. 

Phil seemed to be genuinely shocked that Dan didn’t like it-- his eyes were wide open, his hands shaking a bit and his voice shaking a bit. “It’s… it’s not okay?”

“No! No, it’s not! You don’t just randomly try to kiss somebody who you’ve just met,  _ especially _ if they’re telling you they don’t want to!” Dan yelled, stomping his foot on the ground and sending up a little puff of dirt. “You’d think that for somebody who’s been alive for five hundred years you’d have some knowledge of basic fucking respect!”

“...I didn’t know you wouldn’t like it…” Phil murmured, timidly biting his bottom lip and looking down at the ground. “I just wanted to do it, and…”

“Well, guess what? I didn’t like it!” Dan turned around with a huff, grabbing his backpack and his mask off of the ground as continued to rub the tears from his eyes. “Fuck you. Fucking leave me alone…” 

“Wait! Please don’t leave…” Phil stumbled to his feet as he grabbed hold of Dan’s wrist through his sweatshirt-- not hard like before, but gentle, his ice-cold hand trembling slightly. “I didn’t mean to…”

“You didn’t mean to, did you?” Dan replied in a near shriek as he tugged his arm out of Phil’s grasp. “Then tell me, what exactly was that whole sequence you performed just now when you pinned my arms down and made out with me for a solid minute?” When Phil didn’t respond, Dan simply spun around on his heel and stormed away from him, his eyes still stinging with emotion. He was glad when he turned around for a split second and saw that Phil hadn’t followed him-- he was instead standing in the same place as before, looking down at the ground with a blank expression on his face. Feeling a bit of satisfaction at this, Dan made his way through the forest until he reached the gap in the fence, stumbling through and making his way back to his apartment.

~~~

Dan had no idea how he managed to get to sleep that night. He couldn’t stop thinking about Phil, and not in a good way. For hours, he woke up after several minutes of fitful sleep at a time, bursting awake in a sobbing panic. He couldn’t stop fantasizing about what else might have happened in his encounter with Phil if he hadn’t gotten out of there when he had. He pictured Phil’s deathly sharp fangs sinking into the soft flesh of his neck, eagerly ripping him open like a Christmas present as he drained every ounce of crimson blood from his body. He pictured himself, lying weakly on the ground, his lips parting silently in a desperate final attempt to cry out for help as the life faded from his eyes. Dan somehow managed to sleep for about five hours without waking up, but it wasn’t exactly a restful sleep. By the time he woke up around ten in the morning, he still had a sick feeling in his tummy, and there were tear stains on his pillow from when he had tried to stifle his crying in the middle of the night. He lay in bed for a while after he woke up, gently gripping the hem of his shirt like a security blanket, staring blankly up at the ceiling as the semi-dried tears clung to his thick black eyelashes. Somehow, after about thirty minutes, the brunet managed to motivate himself to crawl out of bed, shuffling into the kitchen as he attempted to make himself some breakfast. Just because he was still scared out of his mind didn’t prevent his stomach from rumbling-- he hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day. He hadn’t felt like having dinner.

When Dan had managed to get himself into a state that made him feel somewhat decent-- he had put on some clothes that weren’t completely ugly, eaten some cereal, and brushed out the frizzy mess that was his hair until it was more curly than poofy-- he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. He paced around his tiny apartment for a while before deciding to go on Tumblr for a bit to take his mind off of things. As he curled up in a chair and opened his laptop, however, a slightly wrinkled piece of paper tumbled out onto the floor. Frowning, Dan picked it up and started reading, expecting it to be some notes he had stuffed in there and forgotten about. However, he instantly realized the words on the paper were not in his handwriting, but in a swirly, looping script he had never seen in his life. The word were written in neat blue calligraphy, slightly smudged in some places from what appeared to be teardrops. 

_ I’m sorry about what happened. I quite honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Vampires are strange like that… we just jump from one urge to the next with no rhyme or reason at all. I don’t really understand it myself. I know you don’t want to speak to me, or ever see me again, for that matter. To be frank, I don’t even know anything about you, not even your name. But I want to meet you and apologize. Maybe even get to know you a little better. I promise I won’t try to kiss you or bite your neck this time. Like I said, I’m really sorry. If you want to, meet me at the north gate surrounding the forest tomorrow at ten pm. I’ll be there, if you feel like it. _

Feeling his face heating up as his lips contorted into a frown, Dan crumpled up the note, only feeling guilty because of how gorgeous the handwriting was, and threw it across the room into the bin. He couldn’t believe that Phil had the audacity to sneak into his apartment… and then leave a note asking to meet him again, of all things! With a huff, Dan crossed his arms and curled up in a little ball in his chair, somewhat resembling a sulking child as he hid the lower half of his face in the collar of his sweater.  _ He’s got some nerve… well, he’s got another thing coming. I’m never going near him again for as long as I live. _

But to Dan’s horror, the notes from Phil kept showing up again and again. Some days they would be left in painfully obvious places, such as on the kitchen counter or taped to the bathroom mirror. Other times it would be hidden inside various objects-- folded between the pages of a book, nestled between two throw pillows on his couch… even stuffed inside the carton of milk in the fridge, on one occasion. Each of the notes had the exact same thing as before written on them, in the same gorgeous blue calligraphy. Sometimes the ink would be tear-smudged, and sometimes it wouldn’t. Dan would always ignore the notes and simply throw them in the bin, though it was growing harder and harder with each passing day. He had no idea how long Phil would keep this up… and no idea how Phil was managing to get into his apartment each day when he kept his windows shut. Sure, the noiret had the ability to turn into a bat, which would eliminate the suspicion of a six-foot-two man climbing into the apartment, but bats couldn’t go through windows. Nevertheless, he tried his best to ignore the ongoing course of events, praying to every deity imaginable that eventually the nonsense would end. After about a month, the notes stopped, and Dan thought he was in the clear. 

That is, until Dan walked into his bedroom one day and almost had a heart attack when he saw Phil was there. The vampire was sprawled out on his bed as though he owned the place, his eyes closed peacefully as his teeth sunk into a piece of meat. With a start, Dan realized that the meat was a raw steak that he had bought the previous day and had been keeping in the fridge. As he stared in abject horror, Phil drained the blood from the raw cut of meat as though he was sucking on a popsicle, the steak changing from a deep red to a deathly grey as the crimson liquid was drained from it. When Phil had finished, he dropped the drained steak onto a plate that was resting on the duvet, then looked up at Dan with a grin. “Hello.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dan screamed after a few more seconds of stunned silence. “What are you doing in my apartment?”

“Did you not get my notes or something? I waited for you every night, but you never showed up…” Phil stood up with a frown, seeming genuinely upset that Dan hadn’t arrived. 

“Oh, I found those notes. Every single one,” Dan growled.

“Then… did you ignore them?” 

“Obviously I did! What exactly did you hope to accomplish?” Dan demanded, jabbing a finger in Phil’s face and feeling a bit of satisfaction when the vampire flinched and jerked away. “Well? Answer me!”

“If you read the notes, you would have known! I wanted to apologize… and I wanted to know your name,” Phil mumbled, crossing his arms and shuffling his feet anxiously.

“Your apology means shit. And why do you want to know my name? I already said I want you to leave me alone!”

“Please, listen to me! You don’t know how much trouble I had to go through to get here!” Phil begged.

“Does it look like I’d care if you disintegrated because you stepped into direct sunlight?” Dan snapped.

“That’s not true! I don’t disintegrate because of the sun!” Phil protested. “But it does hurt quite a lot… it feels like I’m being burned.”

“Throwing a pity party because you can’t tan is not going to make me listen to you. You’ve got exactly five seconds to get the hell out of here before I get the garlic,”  Dan replied.

“Wait, no! Please, just listen to me!” Phil protested with a shake of his head. Dan ignored him and began counting, but Phil continued to yell over him. “Come on, please! I just came here to apologize! I’m honestly not as bad as you think…”

“Well, then fucking prove it! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be mad at you right now,” Dan said with a frown, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he waited impatiently for a response.

After a few moments, Phil replied in a soft voice, “...because I want to help you.” Dan was about to yell at him again, but the noiret seemed serious-- his fangs were biting nervously at his bottom lip, his eyes refusing to focus on Dan and instead fixed on the floor, one hand anxiously grabbing at the duvet draped over the bed behind him.

“What do you mean, you want to help me?” Dan asked cautiously, lowering his arms back to his sides as he stuffed one hand in his back pocket. 

“I wanna help you… I can tell you need help.”

“What? I don’t understand…”

“Look… this is going to sound really ridiculous, but it’s true. Vampires can sense other people’s emotions… they can tell whether they’re feeling happy or sad or angry and stuff… and you’re not happy,” Phil sighed. He sat down on the edge of the bed, lifting up the plate that contained the blood-drained steak and resting it on his lap. “You seem really, really lonely… you seem so sad, like you’re missing something…” 

“I… I guess…” Dan frowned. He didn’t want to admit it, but Phil was right-- he was extremely lonely. Even when he was surrounded by friends, he felt empty and alone, as though nobody truly understood him. Although he was a pretty tall guy, he felt as though everyone was looking down on him constantly, and that none of his close friends and relatives actually cared about him. The only thing he craved was just one person who actually liked him… whether it be a friend, a boyfriend, or anything at all. He just wanted to feel cared about. However, he wasn’t willing to admit it to some random vampire who had just drained the blood out of a steak from his fridge. “But how exactly do you plan to… help?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute, hold on. The truth is, I’m obsessed with humans. Like,  _ really _ obsessed. I wanna know everything about them… they just seem so interesting, y’know?” Phil’s eyes lit up as his lips curled up into a smile. “So, this is what I figured… I wanna learn more about humans, and you want to feel less lonely. I know a way to make us both happy!”

“Are you suggesting that you become my roommate?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well… yes. But before you say no, just think about it! It seems like you’re really interested in vampires… you’ve got all those weird books and stuff everywhere. Wouldn’t it be so cool?” Phil seemed genuinely excited about the prospect, as he was bouncing up and down a little on the bed like a hyper child on Christmas morning. “We wouldn’t tell anybody about it or anything, since it’s  _ kinda _ illegal… but it’d still be a good idea!”

“Okay. Listen to me right now. I will admit… that’s a pretty decent idea. But if you’re going to be living in my apartment, there’s going to be some ground rules.” Dan leaned over and stuck his finger underneath Phil’s chin, tilting his head up so he was forced to look at him. “Obviously, rule number one is  _ no biting _ . If I catch those nasty little fangs anywhere near my neck, you’re out.”

“Okay, but I’ll need to get some blood somehow…” Phil frowned.

“I’ll buy a few steaks at Whole Foods every week for you, okay? Second of all… you’re allowed to leave the apartment and get fresh air, but only if you’re in bat form, okay? I don’t feel like having the authorities swooping down on me because I’m hiding a blood-sucking demon in my apartment,” Dan continued.

Phil nodded, his fangs poking out a bit and sinking into his bottom lip as he smiled up at Dan. Dan couldn’t help but feel a little amused by this-- Phil had allowed Dan to keep his finger under his chin while he was talking and was gazing up at him, somewhat resembling a puppy begging for food. He chuckled a little bit at this before he kept talking. “And third of all, you’re not sharing a bed with me. You can sleep on the couch.”

“I turn into a bat when I sleep, though… it’s an instinctive thing,” Phil replied.

“Well, you can hang upside down from the hanger rod in my closet, okay?” Dan sighed.

“I guess that’ll work… are those all the rules, then?” Phil asked with a grin.

“Yep. For now. God knows I’ll probably think of more when you reveal how much of a little gremlin you really are,” Dan huffed.

“Hey! I’m not a gremlin!” Phil pouted, crossing his arms. “That’s not very nice.”

“Well, I’m not a very nice person. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go buy a new steak to replace the one you eviscerated,” Dan sighed. “Try not to make too much of a mess while I’m gone.” 

“I’ll be right here when you come back!” Phil grinned, leaning up and poking Dan’s cheek with one icy-cold finger, laughing when Dan flinched. “Sorry…”

“If I find one thing out of place, I swear to God…” Dan jabbed a finger at Phil as he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there, everyone! I hope you have been enjoying the story so far ^^ ! Some of you might notice that I've left out or altered certain parts of Phil's vampire traits. For example, I changed "disintegration in sunlight" to "severe burns in sunlight." I also left out the part where vampires have to be invited into a house in order to come in. (This one may or may not have been an accident.) If you're wondering why I've done this, it's simply a matter of writer's interpretation! One of the main ideas here is that vampires aren't exactly the way they are portrayed in movies and other media-- they aren't exactly the way they seem at first. (Can this idea be related to the whole story? Most likely... ;p) Anyways, I thought I would just leave this note here to eliminate any confusion. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this new chapter! :)

Dan returned back to his apartment about two hours later in an even worse mood than before-- needless to say, it wasn’t fun getting strange looks from the butcher and comments from passing people in the store when he asked for five large steaks and three hams. The only thing that made him feel any better was when he stumbled back into his bedroom and found Phil sitting in the same exact place he had left him, just as he had said. “I got your meat.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Phil hopped off the bed and moved towards Dan in an attempt to hug him; however, he quickly backed off when he saw Dan was glaring at him. “Sorry.”

“Look, we’re not quite at that level yet, okay? Maybe in fifteen years, but not right now. I’ll leave this meat in the fridge if you want it, got it? I’ll make myself something, as I’m not that fond of eating raw meat.”

“What are you gonna cook?” Phil asked, padding after Dan into the kitchen.

“Tikka masala,” Dan replied in a deadpan tone after he put the meat in the fridge. “It’s this spicy chicken-and-curry thing… it’s pretty good.”

“That sounds cool! Can I try some?” Phil asked.

“I thought you only needed blood to survive,” Dan grumbled.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’ll die if I eat human food!” Phil protested. “People only drift into the forest so often! We kind of had to adapt to survive on things besides blood…”

“Are you saying I bought those steaks for nothing?”

“No!” Phil shook his head. “We have to drink blood at least once a month…”

“Or what? You’ll blow up?”

Phil shook his head as he sat down on the edge of the counter, swinging his legs as he watched Dan scuttle about the kitchen. “No. We get this blood-lust kind of thing for like three nights… we basically can’t control our biting and just run around attacking everyone in sight. Then we disintegrate. So you kind of need to keep that meat in there unless you want me to have the uncontrollable urge to rip your neck open.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Dan sighed.

“You’re welcome!” Phil chirped.

Dan groaned to himself-- Phil clearly didn’t know what the word “sarcasm” meant. “I kind of need to work on that counter. Go watch some tv or something…”

“Watch some… what?”

“...are you seriously telling me you don’t know how a television works?” Dan grumbled.

“I don’t even know what that is! We don’t have those in the forest…” Phil frowned as he hopped off the counter. 

“Look, I’ll show you how to use it, okay?” Dan took hold of Phil’s sleeve and dragged him into the lounge, pushing him onto the couch and putting the remote in his hand. “Basically you can go through the channels and you can watch things… find something funny and just chill out here, got it?”

“Got it!” Phil replied with a nod.

_ Thank god… he’s out of my hair now. _ Dan managed his first smile in a few hours as he went back into the kitchen, busying himself as he prepared dinner. He figured Phil would pester him to try some of his cooking, so he made a bit of extra food for him as well. After a while, he decided to check on the vampire out in the lounge-- he had been unnaturally quiet since he had gotten hold of the remote, and Dan himself was quite interested to see if Phil was enjoying himself. After all, having full control of the television when he had never seen one before would most likely excite him. Making sure the food wasn’t going to burn while he was gone, he started walking out to the lounge but paused when he heard a strange noise.  _ Is that… moaning? _ He sped up and got back to the lounge, almost screaming when he saw Phil was watching quite possibly the lewdest porn he had ever seen in his life. “Phil! What the fuck are you watching?”

“You said pick something funny to watch…” Phil seemed genuinely content despite what he was watching-- he was hugging a throw pillow to his chest, a relaxed expression on his face. “So I did.”

“How on earth is  _ this _ funny?” Dan screeched, gesticulating wildly towards the television.

“Because it’s making me feel funny.”

“That’s… that’s not what I meant!” Dan couldn’t help but blush a little bit, shaking his head and rubbing his temple with two fingers. “Look, watch something  _ besides _ that, okay?”

“Okay, fine…” 

“Jesus Christ…” Dan ran his fingers through his curls, which had shifted towards the frizzy side due to the heat in the kitchen. On one hand, he couldn’t really be mad at Phil… it was doubtful the vampires in the woods had internet access, so obviously wouldn’t know what porn was. On the other hand, though… well, there really was no other hand. He had no idea why he had gotten so mad and yelled at Phil. Maybe it was because he had been mad at Phil all day and his tensions had been so high. He didn’t feel like thinking about it, though. 

~~~

Phil seemed to absolutely love Dan’s cooking. He went back for seconds, then thirds, all while constantly complimenting him for how great it was. After dinner, Phil got one of the hams from the fridge and sat on the kitchen counter, sucking the blood out of it with a blissfully content expression not dissimilar to an infant drinking milk from a bottle. Dan watched him from the doorway with slight fascination. If any other vampire had been sitting there draining the blood from the meat, it might have appeared terrifying. But now that Phil wasn’t trying to split open his jugular and was showing his true personality that wasn’t clouded by bloodlust, his actions were strangely mesmerizing. He seemed all too much like a little kid, from the way his feet swung several inches above the floor as he sat on the edge of the counter, to the way his eyes sparkled with happiness as his fangs dug into the raw meat, to the small bat-like chirps he made whenever he rotated the ham and began munching on a new spot. Dan felt a little flutter of  _ something _ deep in his chest, but he ignored it, coughing a bit to let Phil know he was there. “You enjoying yourself?”

“M-hm…” Phil nodded, unable to speak due to the meat in his mouth. He put the drained ham down on a plate and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. “Yeah…”

“You feel like cleaning that blood off?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow as he took on the watery bloodstains on Phil’s hands.

“Yeah, I will…” Phil nodded. “What’re you gonna do?”

“I don’t know… gonna watch a movie or something, if you feel like joining.” Dan shrugged as he padded into the lounge. After a few minutes, Phil joined him but stood still in front of him, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other with an uncomfortable expression. “Can I help you? You’re blocking the screen.”

“I have a question…” Phil said quietly. “My suit is getting really uncomfortable… do you have any clothes I could borrow?”

“Y’know what? Fine. Go in my closet, there’s about a million things in there for you to wear. Get something comfortable you can sleep in.” Dan let out a little sigh as Phil darted into the bedroom.  _ He’s like a five-year-old, honestly… _ He chose a movie at random, not really caring about which one he picked. He just needed anything to distract himself. Tugging his sleeves over his hands, he wrapped a blanket around himself and nestled deep into it-- it was rather cold in the apartment, especially considering it was mid-October. 

Phil returned to the lounge after several minutes, wearing Dan’s Game of Thrones pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt. Seeing the blanket wrapped around Dan, he promptly pounced onto the couch and snuggled up to Dan, causing the brunet to yelp. “Fuck, you’re freezing!”

“Sorry! I’m always cold… I’m essentially a walking corpse, y’know?” Phil slipped underneath the blanket, being sure to give Dan a few inches of space. His eyes immediately focused on the movie, his pupils growing wide with amazement as he watched the characters moving around on the screen. Stifling a chuckle in the palm of his hand, Dan’s attention shifted back and forth between the movie and Phil, amused by the happy little squeaks he would let out whenever something new happened on the screen.  _ I guess he’s not  _ _ that _ _ bad… he is pretty entertaining. He’s a weird little guy… _

Phil ended up falling asleep halfway through the movie, turning into a bat with a little puff of smoke. When this happened, Dan gently scooped up Bat-Phil and carried him into his bedroom, gently opening the claws on his feet as he helped him hang upside-down from the hanger rod. Bat-Phil squeaked in his sleep but didn’t wake up, causing Dan to smile. He curled up on his bed, opening his laptop and scrolling through Twitter while occasionally sneaking glances at the sleeping bat and feeling himself grin whenever Phil chirped in his sleep.

~~~

Dan woke up to the sound of chirping and the flapping of wings. Groaning and squinting up at the ceiling from where the noises were coming from, he saw Bat-Phil soaring in circles near the ceiling, squeaking wildly. Dan looked over at his clock, feeling a rush of anger when he saw it was six in the morning. He grabbed his pillow and chucked it up at Phil out of frustration, wanting to scream when the pillow missed and fell back on his face. “Phil!” He felt something heavy land on his feet and moved the pillow to see Phil had turned back into a human and was on his knees at the foot of the bed, bouncing up and down eagerly. “Phil, what the hell?”

“What?” Phil frowned. 

“It’s six in the fucking morning! Why are you awake?” Dan demanded, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with his hand.

“Because I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.” Phil shrugged. “What are you gonna make for breakfast?”

“...Phil!” Dan shrieked. “It’s too early for breakfast!”

“But I’m hungry!” Phil whined, flopping onto his side on the bed as he pouted at Dan.

“I don’t care! Either go back to sleep or make yourself something to eat! I’m not getting out of bed until ten!” Dan rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in his pillow, ignoring as Phil continued to whine and pester him. “Phil, go away.”

“But Daaaaan! Dan, I’m hungry!” Phil repeatedly poked Dan’s sides and back with his fingers, still continuing to do it even when Dan ignored him. “Dan, please, I’m hungry! Besides, if I try to cook anything I’ll burn the house down! Wake up!”  
“Get some cereal or something! Just… just go away!” Dan snapped. After a few moments of silence, Phil got off the bed and scampered out of the room, causing Dan to heave a sigh of relief. _Finally,_ he thought as he drifted back to sleep.

Dan awoke a few hours later to another sound coming from the lounge, one that he couldn’t quite recognize. He shakily got out of bed, stretching before making his way towards the sound. When he stepped into the lounge, he realized it was Phil, who was sitting on the couch and crying-- not just little sniffles, but full-on bawling as he buried his face in his hands.

“Oh my god! Phil, what’s wrong?” Dan stepped over to Phil, crouching down to his level as he moved his hands away from his face. 

“I don’t like it…” Phil whimpered with a shake of his head, a few strands of hair flopping in front of his eyes.

“What don’t you like?” Dan tried to keep his voice calm and soft so as not to work Phil up more.

“When you yell at me…” Phil let out another shaky sob as he lowered his head. “It hurts my ears, they’re too sensitive… I don’t like it…”

“Oh… oh, Phil, I’m sorry…” Still feeling too awkward to hug Phil despite how awful a state the vampire was in, Dan chose to rigidly ruffle his hair as a poor attempt to comfort him. “You just woke me up early and I got a little annoyed with you… I didn’t mean to hurt you…”

Phil stuck out his bottom lip as he looked up at Dan with teary eyes. “You didn’t?”  
Dan shook his head. “I could never hurt you…” He sat down next to Phil and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, feeling a little flutter in his chest when Phil crawled partially onto his lap and rested his head on his chest. “You said it hurt your ears when I yelled?”

“Yeah… bat ears, y’know?” Phil managed a weak little chuckle. “They’re really sensitive… they were ringing for a bit after you yelled, that’s why I was crying…”

“Oh… I’ll try not to yell anymore, okay?” Dan smiled.

“Thank you…” Phil grinned.

“Wait, you said you basically have bat ears, right? Does that mean you have really shitty eyesight, too? I’m just wondering,” Dan asked.

“I don’t think so… everything’s supposed to be blurry, right?”  
“Blurry? Wait…” Dan quickly grabbed a pen and a Starbucks receipt off the coffee table and scribbled a rather messy picture of a dinosaur on it before taking several steps away from Phil and holding the paper up. “What did I just draw a picture of?”

“Uh, the Eiffel Tower?” Phil asked, squinting at the picture.

Dan sighed and shook his head. “No pun intended, Phil, but you’re blind as a bat. You need glasses.”

“Oh.” Phil frowned and looked down at the floor with a disappointed expression.

“That’s not a bad thing, though!” Dan smiled. “Lots of people have glasses. Tell you what, I’ll call my friend PJ… he’s an optometrist, he can come over and get you fitted.”

“I thought we weren’t going to tell anybody about me living in your apartment!” Phil whined.

“No, I’ve got a plan… I’ll tell him you don’t like talking and you’re really shy, okay? If you just don’t open your mouth the entire time, you’ll be fine!” Dan smiled. “That way, he can’t see your fangs!”

“Okay, I guess…”

~~~

“So, why exactly can’t your roommate come to the eye doctor?” PJ asked, raising an eyebrow as he draped his coat over one of the chairs in the kitchen.

“He’s got really bad social anxiety… he can’t leave the house or be around people a lot, he gets really anxious…” Dan couldn’t help but blush a little bit when PJ made eye contact with him-- he wouldn’t exactly say he had a  _ crush _ on him, per say, but maybe a tiny smidge of slightly more-than-platonic affection. Who couldn’t, with those cute glasses and adorable ruffled hair and that seemingly constant smile? He nervously tugged the collar of his sweater over his mouth as he trailed after PJ into the lounge, admiring the lovely royal-purple jumper the other man was wearing. “He also doesn’t like talking that much, so it’s kind of pointless trying to make conversation with him…”

“That’s going to be rather difficult. How exactly am I supposed to know what things he can see and what things he can’t?” PJ frowned, turning around and crossing his arms.

“Um, he can write it down or something?” Dan shrugged.

PJ just sighed again, pushing his glasses up his nose with one finger. “You’re lucky we’ve known each other since middle school, otherwise there’s no way I’d be doing this. So where is this guy exactly?”

“I don’t know, actually… Phil!” Dan called.

Phil quickly toddled out into the living room with a little smile, waving awkwardly at PJ as he curled up in a chair. He started to greet him, but remembered he wasn’t supposed to speak, so he instead let out a muffled squeak. Dan tried his best not to facepalm and instead managed a forced smile. “That… is Phil.”

“Hello. Now, I’ll be performing just a few simple tests to see how your vision is, alright?” PJ reached into his suitcase and pulled out a chart with rows of letters, handing it to Dan and gesturing for him to hold it. “Cover your right eye and look at the chart…” He pulled out a pencil and tapped the bottommost row of letters. “Can you read those? Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no.” Phil responded with a thumbs-down as he stuck out his bottom lip and shook his head. PJ shrugged. “That’s to be expected… next row.” However, after a while, Dan and PJ realized that Phil couldn’t see  _ any _ of the letters on the chart, not even the biggest row at the top. 

“I absolutely cannot believe this…” PJ sighed. “Phil, your vision is so bad… how did you not know this earlier?” When Phil shrugged, PJ shook his head and reached into his suitcase for some paper. “Alright then… I’ll just need to measure your face for your frames, then I’ll get your prescription all set for you.”

_ Jesus Christ… I knew his vision might have been slightly wonky, but I didn’t know it would be  _ _ that _ _ bad! _ Dan thought to himself as he shuffled into the kitchen to tend to his plants. He had two small succulents named Dee and Lee that he kept on the windowsill overlooking the city, and he quite possibly liked them more than people. Smiling to himself, he filled up a small cup with water and poured in into the plants’ soil as he talked to them. “Drink up… are you enjoying the sun? Your leaves look very healthy…”

“Are you talking to your plants again?” PJ asked from the door with a little chuckle.

“Maybe…” Dan blushed and gripped the edge of the sink as he shuffled his feet.

“Aw.” PJ smiled, walking over and playfully ruffling Dan’s curls. Dan squeaked and hid his face in his sleeves with a shake of his head, causing PJ to laugh again. “Y’know, I wish I had your hair…”

“Our hair is exactly the same! Brown and curly!” Dan giggled.

“Yeah, but your hair is curlier than mine…” PJ shrugged as he looked out the window with a wistful little smile.

“M-hm…” Dan smiled back as he leaned against the sink, his shoulder bumping against PJ’s for a quick second before he jerked away with a blush.  _ Alright then… maybe I do have a little crush on him. But it’s fine. _

~~~

Two weeks later, PJ showed back up at the apartment. As soon as he entered the lounge, he threw his rain-soaked umbrella onto the carpet with a sigh. “I’m so sick of the rain…”

“I don’t mind it, honestly… it’s quite relaxing even with the thunder,” Dan replied as he picked up the umbrella and set it next to the heater. 

“Yes, but it’s been raining for two weeks… you’d think that there’d be a bit of sun after a while!” PJ whined as he leaned back on the couch, pushing his wet hair out of his face. 

“Peej, I’m not a magician. I can’t change the weather.”

“Anyways… I’ve got your roommate’s glasses. Does he want to try them on, or…”

“Oh, he’s out on some errands right now,” Dan replied. That lie was partially true-- Phil had left the house for a bit, but it was only because he had been complaining about how cramped-up he felt. Dan had let him leave the house, opening a window and allowing the bat to fly out into the rain. He had promised he’d be back in an hour, but it had been over two hours since he had left, and Dan was beginning to get nervous.  _ What if he flew into a tree or a building or something and got hurt? What if he turned back into a human and somebody caught him? What if… _

“Dan? You in there?”PJ waved his hand in front of Dan’s face. “You’re zoning out again…”

“Oh! Sorry. But yeah, he’s doing some errands,” Dan stuttered.

“Alright. Well, I’ll just leave his glasses here, okay?” PJ smiled.

“Okay…” Dan nodded.

After PJ left, however, Phil still didn’t come back. Dan kept his bedroom window open so that Phil could fly back in, sitting on the bed and watching intently for any sign of the little bat. Soon, Dan curled up in bed on top of the covers, a little frown gracing his features as he hugged a pillow to his chest.  _ Where is he? I hope he didn’t get hurt… _

Dan suddenly heard the flutter of leathery wings as Bat-Phil zipped into the room. He turned back into a human as soon as he landed on the bed, and Dan could immediately tell something was wrong. The noiret was shaking and sniffling, his body covered in scrapes and cuts and his clothing torn up. “Phil? Phil, what happened?”

“I flew into a building…” Phil sniffled. 

“What do you mean, you  _ flew into a building _ ?”

“I didn’t know they would have glass in them! I wanted to go through the building because there was a window but I hit glass instead!” Phil cried.

“Phil… Phil, not every single building in the world keeps its windows open all the time, y’know…” Dan sighed. He intended to follow up with another sarcastic remark, but felt guilty and stopped himself when he saw how hurt Phil was by his response. “Look… do you think you broke any bones or anything?”

“No…” Phil shook his head. “Everything hurts, though…”

“Alright, take your shirt off, let me see…” Dan sighed.

“What? Why?” Phil pouted.

“I wanna make sure you didn’t break any ribs or anything…”

“Dan, I’m a vampire. I’m not going to die,” Phil sighed.

“Yes, but regardless of whether or not you can die, walking around with a shattered rib cage is not exactly healthy!” Dan replied firmly. “Shirt off, now.”

“Okay, okay…” Phil quickly pulled his shirt over his head and put it on the bed, his breath hitching a bit as Dan examined his chest. “Your hands are warm.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I guess… I’m just not used to it, that’s all…” 

Dan simply chuckled, pressing down gently on a few various areas. “Does that hurt at all?”

“No.”

“That’s good, then. Are you having trouble breathing? Any sharp pains or anything?” Dan asked.

“No.” Phil shook his head.

“I think you’re fine, then… do you want me to help you with these cuts and scrapes and stuff?” Dan asked with a smile.

“Yes, please…” Phil nodded with a weak giggle. “And Dan?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry for coming back late… I know you were probably pretty worried…” Phil sighed. “I kind of… flew into a building and all…”

“Phil, you don’t need to apologize. It’s alright,” Dan insisted. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, alright?”

Phil let out a little chirp in response and nuzzled his head against Dan’s shoulder. Rather than pushing him away, Dan patted the top of his head at smiled a bit when Phil seemed to like it.  _ I can’t stay mad at him for some reason… it’s not like he can help the things he does. He’s just trying his best… it’s not like he’s intentionally making mistakes. He’s honestly not that bad, really.  _ He let out a little giggle as Phil rubbed against the side of his neck, tickling him a bit.  _ I guess I could get used to this. _


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Phil! I’ve got something for you…” Dan called as he stepped in the front door. As much as Phil loved wearing his clothes, it was getting a bit tiring. He had managed to take the noiret’s clothing sizes while he was asleep a few weeks prior and ordered a variety of clothes for him. He wasn’t exactly sure what kinds of aesthetic Phil had, but he noticed that he mostly stole the clothing that was oversized and brightly colored, so he had that tidbit of information to go off of. The oversized Amazon box had arrived outside the door that afternoon when he returned from grocery shopping, which gave him the perfect opportunity to surprise Phil.

“Coming!” Phil darted into the lounge and greeted Dan with a playful nuzzle against his neck. Dan couldn’t help but smile when he saw Phil wearing one of his sweaters-- an oversized one that dipped low and exposed most of his back. Dan had found out a few weeks prior when Phil had flown into a building that he actually had bat wings-- not huge ones, but tiny, almost pitifully small ones located right between his shoulder blades. They didn’t really serve any purpose, according to Phil, so it was okay that they had been squashed flat inside his clothes for the past few weeks. The oversized sweater was just low enough so that the tiny wings could poke out, flapping quickly in excitement. “What’s in the box?”

“You’ll see.” Dan set the box down on the floor and began to cut the packing tape. Phil attempted to lean closer, but Dan pushed him back. “Nope. It’s sharp, be careful…” Once he managed to get the ridiculously sticky packing tape off, he opened it up and gestured for Phil to look inside.

When Phil did so, he let out a little squeal. “Aah! Oh my gosh, Dan! Thank you!” He bumped his head against Dan’s shoulder as he began looking through the box. “Oh, Dan, these are so pretty! Thank you!” 

“You’re welcome…” Dan giggled. “I know you like wearing my clothes, but…” He cut himself off with a squeak when Phil wrapped his arms around his torso and practically tackled him onto his back, his eyes widening with shock. “P-Phil!”

Phil himself didn’t seem to realize what he had done either, as he simply lay on top of Dan with his eyes wide open for a few seconds. Eventually, he sputtered out an apology, sitting up and hastily pushing his hair out of his face. “I’m sorry! I know you said no on the hugging thing but I just got so excited and…”

With a sigh, Dan pulled Phil back down and hugged him tightly, causing the vampire to let out a little huff of air due to how hard he was being squeezed. He relaxed his grip, but only a little bit, as he pressed his face against the side of his neck. “Look, the hugging can be a thing, okay? Just… don’t be doing it all the time, got it?”

“Um, sure…” Phil timidly wrapped his arms around Dan’s neck and rested his head on his chest. “Is this okay?”

“Yep. That’s okay. You can do that,” Dan replied, running his fingers through Phil’s hair and giggling a bit when this provoked a happy chirp. Phil’s body was pretty cold on top of his own, but he didn’t mind that much. He could feel that flutter of _something_ in his chest again, but he ignored it. “You comfy?”  
“M-hm…” Phil smiled. “Y’know, it feels weird… hearing a heart beating in there.” He poked Dan’s chest, right over where his heart was. “It’s relaxing.”

Dan laughed quietly as Phil pressed his ear against his chest and kept listening to his heart. One of Phil’s hands brushed against the side of his neck, his little nails scratching his skin for a split second and his fingertips pressing down against the sensitive area. Dan stifled a little squeak by biting his bottom lip, his chest heaving and his hands trembling a bit as he pressed the palms of his hands against Phil’s back to stop the shaking. 

“Why did it speed up?”  
“Huh?”

“It sped up.” Phil poked Dan’s chest again with a confused look. “How come?”  
“Uh, humans do that sometimes. Their heartbeats can just speed up and slow down for some reason, it’s weird…” Dan sputtered, stumbling over his words as he tried to speak clearly. _Don’t let him know that your neck is sensitive! He won’t understand it and he’ll probably just keep poking it!_

“Hm.” Phil seemed to take this as an acceptable response, resting his arms around Dan’s neck with a smile. His nails were still gently scratching the side of Dan’s neck, though, and the sensation was absolutely unbearable. Trying to keep his breathing at an appropriate rate as little puffs of air escaped through his nose, he kept his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to ignore the ticklish little jitters rushed up and down his spine. Thankfully, Phil didn’t seem to notice his strange behavior, simply smiling and nuzzling his head against his chest as the little wings on his back flapped quickly and happily; however, it didn’t appear as though he would be moving his hands any time soon. Balling his fists in the material of Phil’s sweater, Dan attempted to lower his neck to get away from his hands, but it wasn’t working. Finally, after an agonizingly long period of time, Phil sat up and scrambled off the couch, picking up the box of clothes and toddling into Dan’s bedroom. With a sigh of relief, Dan stood up and ran his fingers through his curls in an attempt to calm himself down.

Soon, Phil came back wearing some ripped black jeans and a pastel-blue shirt. “Does this look okay?”

“Yep. Looks great!” Dan managed to say with a smile, his hand still shaking a bit.

“Yay!” Phil smiled and spun around in a little circle before flopping into one of the chairs and curling up in a little ball. “Thanks…”

“No problem.”

~~~

“Dan, I don’t understand! Are phone calls supposed to make you nervous?” Phil asked as he trailed his panicked roommate around the apartment.

“No, but this one in particular is!” Dan sputtered. During a phone call with PJ, he had somehow thought it would be a wise idea to ask him over for dinner. To his utter shock, PJ had replied and said he would be there in an hour, leaving Dan with nearly no time to get ready. “I have to cook something that he’d like, I have to take a shower, I have to get dressed, I have to pick a movie for us to watch afterwards…”

“Dan! You’re freaking out… do you want me to help?” Phil asked.

“Y’know what, fine. There’s water cooking on the stove for pasta in that big pot… once it starts boiling and getting lots of big bubbles, can you come and tell me?” Dan asked.

“Sure thing!” Phil pulled up a chair and knelt on top of it so he could see into the pot, then stared at it with laser-sharp intensity. Dan wasn’t even sure if he was blinking. “There’s no bubbles yet…”

“Alright then… just tell me when it starts boiling, okay?” 

“Yep.”

Somewhat concerned, Dan managed to shower and get dressed in less than ten minutes. He chose a button-down shirt in a lovely shade of dark grey, black jeans, and some dress shoes that he hadn’t worn in over a year and somehow still fit into. While he was trying to tame the frizzy parts of his hair so that it was all perfectly curly, Phil skidded into his bedroom, almost falling over in the process. “Dan! The water’s boiling!”

“Shit! Hold on…” Dan hurried into the kitchen and saw that the water was, in fact, boiling. “Thanks, but I don’t need any more help right now, okay?”

“Fine…” However, Phil continued to sit on the kitchen counter, eagerly watching Dan as he rushed about the kitchen in a panic. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?”  
“Yes, Phil, I’m fine,” Dan sighed, somehow managing to restrain himself from yelling-- he didn’t need a sobbing Phil to deal with too. 

Dan somehow managed to get everything ready just a few minutes before PJ arrived, setting the plates down on the table just as he heard a knock at the door. “Coming!” He quickly turned to Phil. “Does my hair look alright?” 

“Yep!” Phil smiled.

“Okay, I need you to listen… this is kind of a personal moment between me and PJ. No offense, but it’ll be a little awkward with you… lurking around. Can you just hang out in my bedroom until he leaves?” Dan asked. “It’ll only be a couple of hours.”

“What?” Phil frowned. “But… why? Does PJ not like me or something?”  
“No, don’t be silly! He loves you!” _Hopefully not literally…_ “But I’ve been friends with him longer than you have, so this is kind of a personal thing right now, okay? It’ll only be a few hours… then you can come out and we can chill together for as long as you like,” Dan tried to convince him. “You can also open the window and go fly around for a bit, as long as you come back before nine.”

“Okay, I guess…” Phil frowned. The disappointment in his voice was imminent, and his bottom lip was stuck out in a little pout. “It won’t be for a long time, right?”

“Nope. Just a few hours.” Dan nodded. “You can take one of the steaks in there for if you get hungry, okay? Just use a plate, too.”

Nodding slowly, Phil grabbed a plate and got one of the steaks out of the fridge, shuffling sadly out of the room. Dan felt a little shred of guilt, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. He ran to the door and opened it, putting on a big smile for PJ. “H-hello!”  
“Hey.” PJ nodded. The taller male looked absolutely adorable in a forest-green sweater, the barest hint of red decorating his lips. “You look great.”

“Oh, thank you!” Dan giggled, feeling his face heat up with an embarrassed blush. “Uh, dinner’s ready, if you’re hungry…”

~~~

Despite Dan’s high expectations, things didn’t exactly go as planned. To start things off, despite the fact that Dan’s cooking was usually semi-decent, he had somehow managed to overcook or undercook every single thing, leading to the entire meal being inedible. PJ had convinced Dan to just order some Chinese takeaway, despite Dan continuing to insist that he could re-make everything to make up for it. Once the takeaway in question had arrived, Dan had somehow managed to upend a container of egg rolls and spare ribs onto PJ, leaving a massive grease stain on his sweater. When Dan began profusely apologizing, PJ tried to convince him that it was fine, but Dan knew he was just trying to make him feel better. And to top it all off, PJ got a call from his roommate two minutes later telling him that the power had gone out,so he had to leave to deal with it. By the time PJ had given him a quick hug and walked out the door, Dan was ready to cry. Sniffling and curling up in a ball on the couch, he dug his fingers into his hair with a squeak.  _ I ruined everything… I ruined it, PJ doesn’t like me anymore… and even if he somehow still likes me, he’s bound to be upset with me! I’m such a failure… _

Upon hearing a noise, Dan looked up to see Bat-Phil soaring in circles near the ceiling. He let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve. “Phil, stop that…” When Phil refused to, he didn’t even bother repeating himself-- he was too tired with everything to worry about it. Curling up in a ball and pressing a pillow over his face, he let the tears spill forward, whimpering and gasping as the salty liquid soaked into the pillowcase. A split second later, he felt Phil land on his legs and start shaking him, sighing and yanking the pillow away. “Can’t you see I’m wallowing in my own misery here?”

“What’s wrong?” Phil frowned.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Dan pouted, hiding his face in his pillow.

“Dan, I can literally sense your emotions. You’re so upset… don’t tell me I wouldn’t understand.” Phil sighed and pulled the pillow away before throwing it on the floor, cupping Dan’s face in his hands with a weak smile. “You can talk to me. I wanna help you feel better.” 

“Um…” Dan let out a weak little chuckle, feeling his face heat up a bit and his heartbeat quickening. Phil’s hands were freezing yet soft against his skin, and his genuine smile was causing that weird little futter in his chest. Trying his best to ignore this, he lowered his head with a frown. “I ruined everything…”

“What do you mean you ruined it? What happened?”

“Everything with PJ… it was horrible. I spilled food on him and everything tasted bad and he said he had to leave early so we couldn’t watch a movie… he’s probably so upset with me now because I ruined everything!” Dan sniffled. “We were supposed to have a nice night but I messed everything up…”

“Oh, Dan… I’m sure PJ isn’t mad at you. Everybody makes mistakes… he’ll understand,” Phil reassured him. “You don’t need to cry…” 

“But he’s probably upset at me! I was about to force him to eat raw meat and I spilled Chinese food on him!” Dan frowned, wrapping his arms around Phil’s skinny waist and hiding his face in his shoulder. “He’s probably so upset!”

“I doubt that… you said you two are good friends, right? I’m sure he’ll understand!” Phil smiled. “I’m sure if you call him tomorrow he’ll have gotten over it and things will be okay.”

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts! You don’t need to worry about it, it’ll be fine!” Phil beamed. “Tell you what… to make it up for you, we can have some food and watch a movie together instead! I can cook something!”  
“I thought you didn’t know how to cook…” Dan frowned.

“I don’t! Who’s to say cold Chinese food and Crunchy Nut Cereal isn’t a good thing?” Phil asked.

“Y’know, you’ve got a point.” Dan couldn’t help but chuckle, lifting his head up with a grin. “That sounds nice.”

Phil giggled and nuzzled Dan’s shoulder before hopping to his feet. “Right! I’ll go get you some cereal… you make yourself comfy, got it? Go put some pajamas on, get a blanket, get a stuffed animal if that’s your thing… then just wait on the couch until I get back! No moving!”

“Okay, okay…” Dan giggled as he went into his bedroom. “Such a silly guy.”  _ That’s so sweet… he’s just a sweet guy in general, honestly. He’s not not that annoying, really… it’s like the only thing he cares about is making me happy. _ He changed into a t-shirt and some Pokemon sweatpants before wrapping himself in his black and grey checkered duvet and grabbing the one plushie he owned-- a large stuffed Totoro about the size of an average housecat. He shuffled back into the lounge and sat on the couch, wrapping himself up completely in the duvet until just the top of his head and his eyes were poking out. When Phil came out precariously balancing two full bowls of cereal in his hands, he poked his arms out of the blanket and made grabby hands towards the noiret. “Gimmie my food, peasant.”

“That’s not nice!” Phil pouted in an expression of mock sadness. “You’ve only got one Phil, y’know.” He handed Dan his cereal with a smile, looking him over a few times. “You even got the stuffed animal! Good job. You get a celebratory pat on the head.” Leaning over, he patted Dan’s curls a few times with the palm of his hand and giggling when Dan pouted and shook his head. “What? Your hair is so fluffy and cute! I had to pat it.”

“Sure, fine. What movie do you wanna watch?” _ Did he call my hair cute?... Oh, shut up, Dan, he probably didn’t mean it like that. He just likes your hair, that’s all.  _

“Uh… I don’t know, you can pick. Do you have scary movies?” Phil asked.

“Oh, I’ve got lots of scary movies. Tell me, are you a fan of clowns?” Dan asked.

“I guess… why?” Phil curled up on the couch near Dan, slipping beneath the blanket and looking up at him.

“Ooh, you’ll like this movie, then.” Dan put  _ It _ on, then got up and turned off all the lights. “Gotta make it extra spooky, y’know?” 

“Yeah…” Phil nodded. “Do humans enjoy being scared?”  
“Well, not all the time. But in the case of scary movies, yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, actually. It’s a popular franchise, though… guess a lot of people like being scared.”

“Huh.” Phil thought this over for a moment. “Okay then.”

~~~

Phil seemed to have a great love for scary movies, whether he knew it or not. While Dan was cowering in fear the entire time, the vampire seemed to be having the time of his life. Sure, he would let out a frightened little shriek at each jump scare, but once he had recovered from the initial shock he would giggle for fifteen minutes while stuffing cereal in his mouth. Every so often, he would whisper something to Dan about how awesome the movie was and poke his cheek for emphasis. Seeing Phil being so entertained was enough to keep Dan from crying out of fear, since he could barely take his eyes off of him the entire time.  _ He really is like a little kid… he’s such a weird little guy, it’s so funny…  _

As soon as the credits started rolling, Phil pretended to fall asleep. Dan could tell he wasn’t really sleeping, since he hadn’t turned into a bat, but it was still pretty funny to watch. Phil’s eyes were closed as he rested his head on Dan’s shoulder, his breathing a bit too quick to be actually sleeping as the little wings on his back fluttered slowly through his sweater. Dan let out a little chuckle as he ran his fingers through Phil’s hair, fluffing it up out of his face. “Phil… I can tell you’re not really asleep… quit faking, you dork…” When Phil didn’t reply, Dan started playfully poking different parts of his face and giggling when he scrunched up his nose and squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “Aw… come on, Philly, wake up…” Since this still didn’t work, Dan simply chuckled to himself. “Well, since you’re ‘asleep,’ I guess you won’t mind if I do this…” He leaned a bit closer to Phil before trailing one hand down towards his ribs, his fingers ghosting playfully over his sides. 

Phil’s eyes popped open, a squeal of laughter escaping him as Dan started tickling him mercilessly. “Aah! Dan, s-stop, that tickles!”

“Ha! Knew you weren’t actually sleeping…” Dan smirked, grabbing Phil’s hips and pulling him forward so he could boop his nose. “Don’t try to fool me.”

“Heh…” Phil chuckled, biting his bottom lip. His face turned a light blue, which most likely served as a blush due to the lack of blood in his body. “You’re weird…”

“Not as weird as you, you spork…” Dan grinned.

“What’s a spork?”

“...y’know what? Never mind.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT WARNING! There is a (small) masturbation scene at the beginning of the chapter! It's not nearly as explicit as the smut I usually write, and it doesn't really add much to the story plot-wise, so if you're not comfortable reading that sort of stuff then feel free to skip it :)

“Hello?”

“Hey, Peej…” Dan smiled as he held the phone up to his ear, curling up on the bed. Phil had just left to go fly around for a few hours, leaving Dan with a bit of time to reconcile with his crush. He had come to terms with the fact that he liked PJ, so he had to do everything in his power to make the feeling mutual. “Uh, sorry about last night…”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Pj replied. “Everyone has bad days… I’d love to make it up to you sometime.”

“Really?” Dan asked, his eyes widening a bit.

“M-hm. Are you free this Friday?” PJ asked. “We could go stargazing, if that’s still your kind of thing. We haven’t done it since freshman year…”

“That… that sounds amazing! Sure!” Dan replied, a little giggle leaking into his voice as he tugged his sleeve over his free hand.

“Great. I’ll pick you up at eight and we can get some dinner beforehand…” 

The conversation went for about twenty more minutes before PJ said he had to go. After he hung up, Dan simply sighed and flopped on his back, a goofy little smile gracing his features.  _ God, I love him so much… he’s so caring and kind and adorable… I mean, Phil is too, but PJ’s different. I don’t know how to explain it… _ He couldn’t help but fantasise about him-- he imagined snuggling with PJ, running his fingers through his soft hair, kissing his cute little face over and over again. He draped his arm over his forehead almost dramatically, his fluffy fantasies running through his mind on a loop. 

Soon, however, Dan’s thoughts drifted towards the not-so-innocent range, his eyes slipping closed as a little huff of air escaped through his mouth. He rolled onto his side, hugging a pillow as he tensed up a bit. His body felt hot and shaky, his face flushed a deep pink. Despite how much he tried, he couldn’t push the dirty thoughts out of his head, and he  _ definitely  _ couldn’t prevent his hand from drifting down his pants and between his thighs. His wrist was moving fast and quick within a few seconds, little moans and squeals escaping him as he thought about PJ doing unimaginable filthy things to him as he allowed himself to be perfectly submissive beneath his hands. A mix of his crush’s name and various profanities slipped past his lips as he shifted onto his back again, his chest heaving and his frame shaking.

_ Be careful… Phil will probably come home soon, and we don’t need to explain the process of wanking to him, _ a little voice in the back of Dan’s head spoke. Almost as though he had flipped a switch, the slight mention of the vampire’s name completely changed his fantasies instantly. Rather than PJ, Phil was filling his head instead, and this time he was the one who had completely submitted. He could almost picture his adorable little body spread out on the bed, his voice barely a whisper as he begged for more, the pathetically tiny wings on his back fluttering at an impossibly fast speed due to arousal. Dan wasn’t able to stifle the resulting moan, the noises he was letting loose becoming breathier and higher-pitched with every passing minute. He couldn’t help but wonder what Phil would look like with all his clothes off, how he would taste, what kind of noises he would make when he came. He knew it wasn’t right, he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about his roommate-- could he be counted as a friend at this point? He most likely could-- in this way, but he was in no haste to stop himself from doing so, not when he was so close. His stomach was curled up in a knot, his thighs were practically vibrating due to how much they were shaking, and he felt so hot and tingly and he was screaming out Phil’s name like a prayer as he hit his high and his vision went white. He felt a momentary flash of pity for his poor neighbors who had to deal with the ridiculous amount of noise he was making-- his bed frame was slamming against the wall and most likely leaving a dent, his moans were purely pornographic and were so loud that they were hurting his throat, and the fingers he had shoved in his mouth a few seconds earlier to try to quiet himself were doing absolutely nothing. 

When Dan managed to calm down after several blissful seconds, he immediately felt a massive rush of guilt, his eyes growing wide.  _ I just got off to Phil… when I was supposed to be thinking about PJ.  _ He rolled onto his tummy and covered his head with his pillow, digging his fingers into his sheets as he closed his eyes. He felt absolutely horrible, tears already stinging his eyes as his mind kept darting back to what he had just done.  _ You can’t think about him like that… he’s just your roommate and nothing else. He’s much too innocent to be thinking about doing those kinds of things with him… Besides, you have a crush on PJ, you idiot! If you should be jacking off to anybody, it’s him!  _ His belly was in a knot and his body was trembling again, but not in a good way.  _ Stop thinking about it… Phil’s going to be home soon, he doesn’t need to see you crying, especially not because of him!  _

Upon hearing the flutter of wings, Dan quickly pretended to be asleep, slowing down his breathing and remaining still. He felt the bed dip down as the vampire landed on it, then felt his hand being lifted up. With a further rush of mortification, he realized he hadn’t cleaned up his…  _ mess _ from earlier. Phil didn’t seem to be too confused, however, as Dan soon felt him using his own shirt to clean it off. He then felt his skinny arms wrapping around him and a cold weight settling next to him. Rather than feeling happy, however, Phil’s presence only brought him sorrow.  _ You literally just got off to him… you were just thinking about fucking Phil.  _ He pretended to be asleep, but it was proving increasingly difficult.

Just as Dan was tempted to shove Phil away just so they weren’t touching, he heard his roommate speaking in a soft voice. “I know you don’t wanna talk right now… you don’t have to. You’ll be okay, though. You’ll be happy soon.” He chirped and pressed his face against the back of Dan’s neck, his lips tickling the baby-fine curls at the nape of his neck. Dan blushed but didn’t move, still pretending to sleep when Phil clearly knew he wasn’t.  _ Please go away… _ However, since Phil clearly wasn’t a mind-reader, he just nuzzled his face against Dan’s back, humming a tune that he couldn’t quite recognize. Sighing, he let him stay there, closing his eyes and trying his best to forget.

~~~

Dan was in absolute misery for the next week. Being around Phil was usually comforting, but now it only filled him with dread. He didn’t want to look at him, he didn’t want to talk to him, he didn’t even want to be in the same room as him.  _ Just avoid him, and it’ll be fine. You’ll forget about it eventually, and things will be back to normal before you know it. _

But it didn’t seem like things would be back to normal any time soon. Phil had taken notice of Dan’s strange behavior and had been constantly asking what was wrong, begging him to tell him something, insisting that he had done something wrong and just wanted to know what it was. Dan wanted to tell him what was wrong, since he knew Phil could usually comfort him in any situation.  _ But how is he supposed to comfort me here? What am I supposed to tell him… ‘Hey, I was jacking off to the thought of you and I think I like you?” Nope! Just keep it to yourself.  _

Before he knew it, Friday had come, which had offered a bit of comfort to Dan. Seeing PJ would remind him of what was really true-- he didn’t like Phil, he liked PJ. However, as he got ready, Phil hadn’t relented in the slightest. As Dan tried to get his hair into a somewhat decent state, he tried to ignore the vampire lurking outside the bathroom door with a bloody steak in his hand. “Phil, it’s kind of hard to get ready when you’re stalking me…”

“Why are you mad at me?” Phil whined. “You’ve been acting weird around me since Monday! This is getting ridiculous!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dan sighed. “Do you want me to throw my hairbrush at you? Then get out.”

“Don’t try to get rid of me! I just wanna know if I upset you!” Phil frowned. He paused to suck some blood out of the steak before continuing to speak. “You’re being so mean to me! Please just tell me what I did wrong!”

“It’s nothing.”

“See? You’re doing it again! You’re mean to me, then you try to change the subject when I talk to you about it!” Phil was on the verge of tears at this point. “I don’t understand!”

“ _ Phil _ … please get out.” Dan was trying with every ounce of his being not to yell at Phil, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay calm. “I’m trying to get ready to go out with PJ… he’s picking me up in half an hour.”

Phil fell quiet for a few seconds, then: “You’ve been spending a lot of time with PJ lately.”

“Well, yes. He’s my friend.” Dan nodded, pushing past Phil and into the bedroom as he tried to decide on a tie. He didn’t even bat an eye when Phil threw the half-bitten steak directly into the trash can, instead settling on a simple black tie and beginning to wrap it around his neck.

“Friends.” Phil nodded and stayed quiet for several more seconds. “Dan, you’re lying.”

“What?” Dan turned around. “What do you mean,  _ I’m lying _ ?”

“You guys aren’t just friends. Are you two dating?”

“No! No, we’re not!” Dan snapped. “Are friends not allowed to hang out with each other or something?”

“I never said that!” Phil squeaked with a shake of his head. “It’s just that you guys seem to hang out a lot more than friends should… I mean, you invited him over to dinner and a movie! That’s super romantic!”

“Well, fine, maybe I do like him. But he doesn’t like me back yet!” Dan yelled.

“So you admit that you like him?”

“Yes! Do you have a problem?” Dan demanded.

Rather than answering, Phil ran over to the open window, turning into a bat and flying out. Dan let a huff of breath escape-- he didn’t have time to deal with his roommate’s bullshit right now.  _ This guy has the maturity of a child and the memory span of a goldfish. He’ll be back to normal in no time. _

~~~

“It sure is beautiful tonight…” PJ smiled.

“Yeah…” Dan smiled. The two of them were resting on a blanket in a clear spot in the local park, looking up at the starry black sky. PJ had let Dan borrow his hoodie, and he had happily burrowed into it, inhaling his soft and sweet scent. “So peaceful…”  
“I know, right?” PJ smiled and shifted a bit closer to Dan, his head brushing against his shoulder. Dan stifled an excited little squeak in his hand and tried to stay still. _He’s touching me!_ “I’m surprised no one else is out here.”

“M-hm…” Dan’s eyes drifted over towards PJ. The moonlight was casting a soft white glow over his features, his eyes half-closed and calm behind his glasses. He couldn’t understand how one person could be so adorable.  _ Come on, Dan, make a move already! _ He timidly linked his arm with PJ’s, gazing up at him with the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster. PJ chuckled when he noticed, reaching over and ruffling Dan’s hair before looking up at the sky. Closing his eyes, Dan pressed his head against PJ’s shoulder, feeling his face heat up.  _ It’s working… come on, try something else… _ “Peej?”

“Yes?” PJ rolled onto his side, his face just a few short inches away from Dan’s. 

Dan’s eyes instinctively widened, his lashes fluttering nervously as his mind raced. He could lean forward and kiss him so easily… just a quick little peck on the lips. Nothing to it. His own mouth opened the slightest bit, his hands drifting forward and pressing gently against PJ’s chest. “Peej, I… this is gonna sound kinda weird, but…”

“You can tell me.” PJ nodded. “I probably won’t think it’s weird…”  
“Well…” Dan’s eyes drifted down to PJ’s lips, then back up again. _Fuck it. Words aren’t gonna work… just do it, Dan, just get it out of the way._ He leaned up and gently put his hands on either side of PJ’s face, closing his eyes and moving forward until their lips brushed together. His heart jumping in his chest, he properly kissed his crush, letting a soft little sigh escape. PJ’s lips were slightly chapped and tasted like strawberry… and they weren’t moving. PJ wasn’t kissing him back and instead was still. Frowning, Dan pulled away, his stomach sinking when he saw PJ shaking his head. “What?”  
“Dan… Dan, do you have a crush on me?” PJ asked sadly.

“Yes…”

“Oh.” PJ bit his bottom lip and sat up, looking down at the ground. “You made it kind of obvious, to be honest…”

“I did?” Dan asked quietly.

“Yeah… look, you’re a really great friend, but I just don’t see you that way. I’m not trying to upset you, I’m just telling you the truth…” PJ mumbled. 

Dan didn’t answer. His eyes were welling with tears, his hands trembling, his mind in a blur.  _ No no no no… he was supposed to kiss back, he was supposed to say he liked me too, we were supposed to date… this isn’t what’s supposed to be happening! _ “N-no… I can do something different, I can change, I…”

“This isn’t a matter of change, Dan, I’m sorry.” PJ shook his head. “I don’t see you as a romantic interest… I hope this doesn’t ruin anything behind us.”

With a little shake of his head, Dan got to his feet, tugging off the sweatshirt he had borrowed from PJ and throwing it at his feet. Without another word, he walked away, not caring about where he was going or what he was supposed to do now. He just wanted to dissolve into dust and disappear from the planet completely.

~~~

The apartment was dark when Dan arrived home, apart from the glow of the television in the sitting room. Phil was wrapped up in about five blankets, including Dan’s duvet, a black and white movie playing before him. As soon as he heard the door open, Phil scrambled out of his blanket cocoon and ran over to Dan, tackling him in a hug and pushing him against the door from the force of it. “Dan! I missed you…”

“I’ve only been gone for an hour…” Dan frowned.

“Yeah, and I still missed you!” Phil frowned. “...how did your thing with PJ go?”

“Not well, and I don’t want to talk about it. Give me my duvet back, I’m going to bed,” Dan grumbled. 

“What? Why, what happened?” Phil frowned, scurrying after Dan as he grabbed his duvet and retreated into his bedroom. “Did something happen?”

“Yes, and I don’t wanna talk about it.” Not even bothering to change, Dan wrapped the duvet around him and threw himself down face-first onto his bed, his eyes stinging with unshed tears. “Go watch your movie.”

“No! I’m not gonna just leave you like this.” Despite Dan’s whines of protest, Phil shimmied under the blanket next to Dan, poking his head out and sticking out his bottom lip. “You’re so sad… what happened?” 

“Leave me alone.”

“No.” Phil booped Dan’s nose with the back of his hand, giggling a bit when the brunet scrunched up his eyes and blushed. “Now, come on… tell me what’s bugging you.”

“Well, since you’re just dying to know, I told PJ I liked him. Needless to say, he didn’t take it well,” Dan huffed. “He doesn’t feel the same way…”

“Oh…” 

“Yeah…” Dan nodded slowly with a little sniffle. “I… I don’t know what to do, I thought he felt the same way…”

“Aw, Dan… please don’t cry…” Phil pouted, rubbing away Dan’s tears with his sleeve. “Okay… what exactly did he say to you?”

“He said I’m a good friend, but he doesn’t love me…” 

“Well, think about it this way! It’s not like he never wants to see you again… he still wants to be friends with you, and he likes you because you’re nice to him…” Phil smiled.

“I don’t even understand why he thinks I’m a good friend…” Dan grumbled.

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re so caring, and funny, and sweet, and adorable… I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t like you…” Phil replied quietly, timidly biting his bottom lip and causing his fangs to catch on it. “I mean, I don’t know what the adorable part has to do with being liked, but…”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold on… did you really mean all those things?” Dan asked.

“Uh, yeah…” Phil nodded, a cute blue blush covering his cheeks. “Is that a bad thing?”

“No, not at all…” Dan shook his head. “It just kind of surprised me, that’s all… I thought you only tolerated me.”

“What? Of course not! You’re my best friend… right?”

“...best friend?”

“M-hm…”

“I’ve never had a best friend before…” Dan whispered with a little giggle. 

“That’s horrible…” Phil nuzzled his head into the crook of Dan’s neck, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Not even in primary school or anything?”

Dan shook his head, smiling when Phil’s hair tickled his neck. “Nope, not even in primary school. I mean, I had some friends, but I wasn’t very close to them. And all of them got tired of me eventually…”

Phil considered this, then: “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of you, Dan…” It was a frank and innocent statement, but his words caused Dan to tear up and squeeze the vampire like a plush toy, causing Phil to squeak in surprise. “Ah! Dan?” 

Dan didn’t answer and simply held on tight, sniffling and shaking as he hugged Phil like he would disappear if he let go. “That’s the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me…” He pulled away and tilted Phil’s face up with both hands, cupping his cheeks and looking right into his wide blue eyes. “Do you mean that?”  
“Of course I do!” Phil nodded. “...but why are you crying?”  
“I’m crying ‘cause I’m happy…” Dan sniffled with a smile. “Happy tears…”

“Oh! Happy tears. That makes sense!” Phil nodded.

Dan giggled quietly, raking his fingers through Phil’s hair and feeling a light blush take over his features when the noiret pushed back up happily against his hand like a cat rubbing against its owner’s hand.  _ He actually cares about me… it’s like the only thing that matters to him is making me happy.  _ “Hey, Phil?”

“M-hm?”

“Are you gonna stay here for a long time? Like, how long are you going to be here?”

“Well… I guess if you’re here, I don’t really have a reason to leave, so… forever, I guess,” Phil shrugged.

“Aw…” Dan smiled. “You mean it?”

“Yep.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Phil, the toast is burning…”

“Oops!” Phil ran over and turned the toaster off, making a “ew”  noise as he pulled out the charred piece of bread out between two fingers. “Sorry! I still have no idea what I’m doing…”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Throw it in the bin and we can start over,” Dan reassured him.

“We’ve started over five times so far… we’re gonna run out of bread soon!” Phil frowned. “When I asked if you could teach me how to cook, I didn’t think it would be this hard…”

“Well, you’ve never cooked anything in your life… it’s bound to be a bit difficult,” Dan replied.

“How come it’s so easy for you?” Phil sighed, sitting on the edge of the counter and swinging his feet back and forth. He had “borrowed” one of Dan’s sweaters again and was flapping his sweater paws frantically, as though he could take flight if he did it fast enough. “You’re so good at it…”

“I mean, I’m not  _ that _ good… but I’ve been doing it for a really long time. Like, since high school,” Dan replied.

“Huh.” Phil nodded. He seemed to zone out for a few minutes, so Dan took the opportunity to watch him. His hands were tucked between his thighs, a carefree expression on his face as he looked up at the ceiling. Dan let out a little chuckle and took a few steps forward, putting his hands on the counter on either side of Phil’s hips, causing Phil to squeak and smile. “What’re you doing?”

“I don’t know…” Dan shrugged. He watched as Phil turned into a bat and began flying in circles around the kitchen, chirping and squeaking playfully. “What’re you doing up there?” Phil landed on the windowsill near Dan’s succulents, letting out a confused squeak. Dan chuckled and walked over, picking Phil up and letting him sit on his shoulder. “They’re my plants. They don’t need a lot of water, so I only have to water them every couple of weeks.” He gasped and started laughing when Phil playfully nibbled his ear, his little teeth grazing his skin just enough to tickle it rather than draw blood. “What on earth are you doing?”

Phil squeaked and flew over to the counter, turning back into a human and sitting down with a smile. “Nothing…”

“Oh, you were doing something…” Dan chuckled, stepping over to Phil. “Do I have to tickle an answer out of you?”

“No!” Phil giggled with a shake of his head. “D-don’t tickle me!”

“Then tell me why you were biting me, silly!” Dan laughed.

Phil shook his head. “No! I…” He cut himself off with a squeal of laughter as Dan dug his fingers into his sides, swatting at Dan’s arms with his sweater paws in an attempt to make him stop. “D-danny, that tickles!”

“That’s the point!” Dan smiled at Phil’s high-pitched laughter, teasing him for a while longer before letting him go. Phil was panting when he finished, his hair an absolute wreck and soft giggles escaping as he tried to calm himself down. “Have you had enough?”

“M-hm…” Phil nodded with a smile. “You’re so mean…”

“Oh, don’t be silly. I’m not  _ that _ mean.”

~~~

“I did it! And it only took the entire bag of bread!” Phil giggled.

“Congratulations.” Dan nodded, smiling as he took a bite of the toast that Phil somehow hadn’t burnt to a crisp. “Could use a bit more butter, but other than that it’s fine.”

“I didn’t even make any for myself… now I’m hungry,” Phil pouted.

“Hey, don’t worry. Hold on a second.” Dan managed to pull off a long strip of toast and held it up to Phil. “Here you go.”

“Thank you!” Phil smiled. He leaned forward and started eating, one end of the toast strip still gripped between Dan’s fingers. Dan’s eyes widened a little bit as he watched Phil-- his eyes were closed, his mouth making soft cute noises as he chewed, his hands folded behind his back.  _ Fuck, he looks so cute… _ He shook his head slowly, ignoring the little fluttering sensation in his chest as he watched Phil eat.  _ Nope, don’t think things like that. You don’t like him. He just wants to be friends with you, and that’s that… nothing more. _

As Dan thought to himself, he didn’t even notice how close Phil’s mouth was to his fingers until the noiret accidentally bit him. “Ow!” He yanked his hand away, frowning when he saw that one of Phil’s fangs had pierced his thumb and caused a drop of blood to appear. “Phil, oh my god…”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bite you, I was just eating…” Phil sputtered, stumbling over his words as he covered his face with his hands. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I’m sorry!” 

“Hey, I’m not upset, don’t worry… you just hurt me, that’s all…” Dan said, trying to keep his voice calm so Phil wouldn’t get worked up even more. “I know you didn’t mean to…”

“But you’re bleeding…” Phil sniffled, peeking out from between his fingers.

“It’s not that bad… you didn’t bite that far. I’ll put a plaster on and it’ll be fine,” Dan reassured him.

“I’m sorry… please don’t be mad at me…”

“It’s okay.” Dan cupped Phil’s face in his hands and smiled to let him know everything was okay. “I’m not mad at you, don’t worry. I could never get mad at you…” When he said this, he immediately noticed Phil blushed and looked down at the floor, but chose to ignore it. “What? It’s a fact.”

“Okay…” Phil nodded, laughing to himself.

~~~

Several hours later, the two were watching yet another movie. As Dan felt himself beginning to zone out, he heard Phil saying something to him. “Huh?”

“Uh… never mind.” Phil shook his head. “It’s a stupid thing.”

“You can tell me.”

“No…” Phil shook his head, setting the popcorn bowl on the table as he frowned. “I shouldn’t have brought it up… you’re gonna get upset with me.”

“Why?” Dan asked.

Rather than answering, Phil shakily got to his feet and stumbled out of the sitting room, trying to hide the fact that he was in a rush. With a little sigh, Dan followed him, grabbing his arm when he saw him attempting to open the window. “Nope, we’re not doing that. You can’t just fly out the window every time you don’t feel like telling me something. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

Phil shook his head again, covering his face with his hands. “I can’t tell you, Dan! You’re gonna get mad at me…”

“Phil, what did I say a few hours ago? I said I could never get mad at you… now, tell me what happened.”

For a few moments, Phil didn’t say anything. Eventually, however, he lowered his hands to reveal tears welling in his eyes. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to do it…”

“What did you do, Phil? You can tell me…”

“There was a bag of marshmallows in the cabinet and I wanted to try some… but they were so good and I ate the whole thing accidentally…” Phil let a shaky little squeak out, covering his face again and turning away from Dan. “I’m sorry, I ate the whole thing and now my stomach hurts…”

“Oh, Phil, is that what this is about? A bag of marshmallows?” Dan couldn’t help but laugh to himself, but immediately stopped when he saw that his laughter was causing Phil to cry harder. “Shit, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to laugh, I wasn’t trying to make fun of you… come on, let’s go sit down, okay?” He gently took hold of Phil’s hand and pulled him back over to the couch, rubbing a hand up and down his back to try to calm him down. “Phil, you don’t need to cry… I’m not upset with you…”

“You’re not?” Phil sniffled.

“No, of course not! If anything, I’m worried because you ate so much!” Dan frowned. “You said your stomach hurts?”

“M-hm… it feels like I’m gonna throw up…”

“Oh dear… do you want me to rub your stomach? That might help it feel a bit better…” Dan asked.

“Yes, please…” Phil nodded eagerly, a weak smile making its way across his face.

“Alright, hold on a second…” Dan leaned back against some pillows, then picked Phil up and nestled him between his thighs. “You can lean back if that’s more comfortable…” Phil did just that, leaning back and using Dan’s chest like a pillow. Smiling, Dan started gently rubbing Phil’s stomach through his sweater, chuckling when the vampire let out a sigh of relief. “Does that feel good? I hope my hands aren’t too cold…”

“No… you’re actually really warm…” Phil closed his eyes and rested his hands on top of Dan’s, humming to himself. “Your hands are so soft…”

“Aw, thank you…” Dan giggled. He watched as Phil’s hands gently trailed over his fingers and knuckles. “Is that entertaining?”

“I guess…” Phil shrugged. “You should paint your nails sometime… it’d look really pretty…” 

“Hm, maybe… only if you let me paint yours,” Dan replied. “Does it hurt any less?”  
“A little bit…” Phil nodded, his voice starting to become soft and husky with sleep.

“Hey, don’t turn into a bat on me!” Dan joked. “It’s very hard to rub a bat’s stomach… I wouldn’t want to crush you!” 

Phil whined and shook his head. “I’m not gonna fall asleep… it’s just warm…”

“Okay then…” Dan kept massaging Phil’s stomach, moving his hands in large, slow, circles. He was somewhat surprised to see just how little Phil felt in his arms-- his hands covered up most of his stomach and chest when he fully opened them.  _ He’s so small… he doesn’t look malnourished or anything, he’s just extremely tiny… _ “You’re so tiny…”

“Mmm…” Phil let out a tired sigh. “You’re big…” He grabbed one of Dan’s fingers and gave it a little squeeze before yawning. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Dan…”

“That’s good!” Dan smiled and helped Phil get to his feet. “Philly, if you wanted some marshmallows, you could have asked me… I would have let you have some.”

“Sorry…” Phil mumbled.

“It’s alright. Are you going to bed?” Dan asked.

“Yeah… g’night, Dan…” Phil leaned down and wrapped his arms around Dan in a hug, nuzzling his neck and pressing his face against his shoulder. His lips pressed against his bare skin for a split second, causing Dan to shiver.  _ Did he kiss me? No, it must have been an accident… but it felt like he did it on purpose! _ Before he could attempt to ask Phil, the noiret had disappeared from the room. 

Letting out a sigh and pressing his hands over his eyes, Dan tried to make sense of the events from that day.  _ I don’t understand… what is wrong with me? I can’t possibly like him… but he’s just so cute and loving and sweet and loyal… oh god, he’s so cute…  _ With a start of realization, Dan’s eyes popped open. “Holy shit… I love him.”


	6. Chapter 6

“PJ? Can you come over today? I need to ask you something…”

“Uh, sure… hey, you’re still not upset about what happened on Friday, right?” PJ asked, his voice sounding tired and husky through the phone.

“No, not at all! I understand… I respect your opinion,” Dan replied, which was mostly true. He did respect PJ’s opinion; however, the only reason he had even gotten over his rejection so quickly was because of his rising feelings for Phil. “I just need to talk to you…”

“Alright. I’ll be there around noontime, okay?”

“Okay! See you then.” Dan hung up and looked over towards Phil, who had insisted on cleaning Dan’s room “because it looked dusty.” Phil was scurrying around with a feather duster and a dustpan, coughing a bit as little dust bunnies floated upwards around his face. “Y’know, you don’t have to do that…”

“Of course I do! You don’t deserve to be living in filth!” Phil insisted.

“Wow, rude. Are you saying my room is filthy?”

“N-no! I’m just saying it shouldn’t be dusty in your room!” Phil whined with a shake of his head.

“Alright, well… if you die from dust inhalation, I’m not paying for your hospital bills,” Dan replied sarcastically. “You want some Indian takeaway for lunch?”

“Sure!” Phil nodded. A few minutes of silence passed, then: “Dan? Are you okay?”

“What?” Dan frowned. “I’m fine… why do you ask?”

“Well… you seem sad. Ever since I’ve showed up, you’ve seemed so sad. Is something wrong?” Phil asked with a frown as he sat down near Dan on the bed.

“No, I’m fine…” Dan silently cursed Phil’s hypersensitive ability to pick up on human emotions. He definitely wasn’t going to tell Phil the reason why he was upset, either, as he knew it wouldn’t end well.  _ He doesn’t feel the same way… there’s no possible way.  _ “I’ve just felt a little sick lately, that’s all.”

“You’ve been sick for three weeks?” Phil frowned. “Do you need to go to a doctor?”

Dan shook his head. “No, no, not sick in that way…”

“Well, what way is it?”

“Look, never mind, okay? I don’t want to talk about it.” Dan sighed and rolled onto his side, facing away from Phil and crossing his arms. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“But don’t you remember what you said to me a few days ago? I said you wouldn’t understand what I was upset about, but you did! And you weren’t upset with me, and I got a belly rub out of it,” Phil insisted. “Of course you can tell me! I won’t be upset…”

“No, Phil… you really, really, won’t understand. You’ll be upset, and it’ll make things awkward between us, and everything’s going to be  _ horrible, _ ” Dan squeaked, his voice cracking on the last word as he shook his head. “So no, I can’t tell you.”

“Dan… you’re worrying me. I just want to help you…” Phil replied. Dan could sense the emotion in his voice-- he sounded so upset and genuinely concerned as to why he was being so closed off. “I just want to know what I did wrong…”

“Oh, Phil… you didn’t do anything wrong.” Dan sat up and gently cupped Phil’s face in his hands, rubbing his jaw with one thumb in a relaxing circular motion. “I’m sorry if I made you think that, but it’s not your fault…”

‘Then why are you upset?” Dan could feel his heart shatter as Phil started crying, big round teardrops spilling down his cheeks and dripping onto Dan’s hands. “I just want to make you happy, and I can’t if I don’t know why you’re sad! I just want you to be happy again!”

“Phil… Phil, I’m sorry, please don’t cry…” Dan rubbed Phil’s tears away with the edge of his sleeve, guilt rushing through his body at how emotional the noiret was at his expense. “I wasn’t trying to make you upset, honestly…”

“Why can’t you tell me?” Phil begged. “I can make you feel better, I promise!”

“Phil… I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you. Maybe at some point, but just not right now, okay?” Dan replied with a frown. “I’m sorry…” Phil didn’t say anything and simply climbed into his lap, hiding his face in his chest with a little sniff. Dan sighed and ran his fingers through Phil’s hair, feeling horrible because of what he was doing.  _ He just wants to help me… he’s willing to do anything to make me feel better. But I can’t just tell him that I possibly like him! It’ll make things weird. _ After a while, Phil climbed off Dan’s lap and grabbed the duvet bunched up at the end of the bed, wrapping it around himself and shuffling sadly out of the room. Sighing, Dan followed him and stood in the entrance to the sitting room, watching as the vampire bundled himself up completely and flopped down on the floor. He wanted to do nothing more than to go over and help him. He wanted to hug him, he wanted to kiss him, he wanted to tell him that he loved him and that everything would be okay… but he couldn’t.

~~~

“So let me get this straight… you have a crush on Phil. A pretty big crush, from what I’m gathering. Why exactly can’t you tell him?” PJ asked.

“Because it’ll ruin our friendship!” Dan sighed. “He’s said that I’m his best friend, but I’m definitely sure he doesn’t want us to be anything more than that.”

“Well, let’s consider the facts here. What qualities of his do you find attractive? Either appearance-wise or personality-wise,” PJ said as he took a sip of his water.

“Oh, that’s quite a bit. Let’s see… I love how caring he is, I love how much he wants me to be happy, I love how fluffy his hair is…” Dan gushed. “I love his cute little smile, I love how he constantly steals my clothes for himself, I love how attached he is…”

“Jesus Christ. Okay then!” PJ huffed. “I get it, you love him. Now, you said that he’s really caring, right? You said that he never gets angry or upset with you over anything…”

“M-hm.” Dan nodded.

“Okay. So what’s the worst thing he could do if you tell him you love him and he doesn’t feel the same way?” PJ asked.

“Well, obviously he’d…” Dan trailed off. “I… I don’t know, actually.”

“Exactly! Things might be a little awkward between you two for a few days, but after a while he’d go right back to normal! He wouldn’t walk out on you or something because you love him… he’d still care about you and still want to make you happy!” PJ grinned.

“Well… how do I even tell him? It’s not like I can take him out to dinner or something romantic like that, he can’t leave the house!” Dan sighed. 

“You said he likes watching movies and your cooking, right? Do something like that! Tell him you have something special planned for him, then after you’ve done all that tell him you like him.” PJ nodded.

“I guess… should I do it tonight, then? Just get it out of the way?” Dan asked.

PJ shrugged. “I don’t know, but if you feel like that’s what you want to do…”

A sudden crash of shattering glass and a shriek from the kitchen caused Dan to scramble to his feet. “Phil?” He ran out on the kitchen and saw that Phil had dropped a glass on the floor, his hands shaking violently. “Oh my gosh, Phil! What happened?” Phil started to speak, but stopped when he saw PJ standing behind Dan, quickly closing his mouth so that he couldn’t see his fangs. Dan picked up on this and nodded. “It’s alright… did you get any glass in your hands?” When Phil shook his head, Dan used a brush and dustpan to clean up the broken glass and dumped it in the bin before giving the noiret a tight hug. “It’s alright, I know you didn’t mean to…” Phil chirped quietly and hid his face in Dan’s chest, sniffling and quivering as he tried to calm down. Dan frowned and rested his chin on top of his head, gently rocking him back and forth. “It’s alright… I’m not upset, y’know. I know it was an accident…”

Once Phil had calmed down, he wouldn’t let go of Dan no matter what he did, leading Dan to drag him back into the living room and attempt to have a semi-normal conversation about something new with his roommate practically super-glued to his torso. After about twenty minutes, Phil let out a yawn and shuffled out of the room, adjusting the sleeves of yet another sweater he had stolen from Dan’s closet. When Phil had left, PJ turned back to Dan with a sigh. “What exactly was that?”

“What?”

“Are you blind? You said you don’t know if he likes you back… obviously he does, if he’s willing to cuddle you for half an hour at a time!” PJ sputtered with a laugh. “Does he do that all the time?”

“Maybe…” Dan blushed and stuck out his bottom lip, looking down at the couch. “He’s so fun to cuddle, though! It’s not my fault he’s so squishy…”

“Dan… Dan, you’re acting like a Tumblr lesbian. Just ask him out already! It’s so obvious that he likes you!” PJ cackled, practically tearing up from how much he was laughing. “You’re  _ hopeless _ !”

“Stopppp! I’ll do it tonight so you shut up about it, okay?” Dan huffed.

“That’s the spirit! Now, I’m just going to scoot on out of here so you can set up… good luck!” PJ reached down and ruffled Dan’s hair in a playful gesture before spinning on his heel and scurrying out of the apartment.

~~~

“Hey, Phil? Are you awake?” Dan asked quietly as he poked a head into his bedroom. He couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle of affection when he saw the noiret was curled up on his bed hugging one of his pillows, pretending to be asleep. “Heh… Philly, wake up. I ordered food…”

“Food?” Phil perked up almost instantly, nearly falling out of bed in his attempts to run over to Dan. “What kind of food?”

“Indian food, like you wanted. Gosh, you’re like a little dog…” Dan smiled.

“How so?”

“Super affectionate and always wanting food and company.” Before Phil could respond to this, Dan gently took hold of his hand and pulled him out into the sitting room. He’d put at least two hours into making sure everything looked perfect, while also making sure that Phil was still in his room. He’d ordered some of every single food off the takeaway menu, which resulted in him getting a strange look from the delivery guy once it arrived. After setting everything up on the coffee table, he’d fixed up the surrounding area with meticulously folded soft blankets and puffy throw pillows before stringing some soft white fairy lights up near the ceiling and putting a stack of movies for them to pick from on the couch. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but he was quite proud of it.

Phil seemed to like it too, since as soon as he stepped into the sitting room he had let out an awestruck gasp and hugged Dan so tightly that it briefly cut off his air supply. “Oh my gosh, Dan! What’s all this for?”

“Just figured I’d do something special for you. No particular reason,” Dan shrugged. He couldn’t help but beam as Phil nuzzled his face in the back of his neck, showering him with strings of praise as he kept hugging him. “Alright, you big goofball, get off…”

“But you’re warm!” Phil whined with a shake of his head.

“I know, but you’re freezing. We can snuggle later, alright?” Dan had to physically pull Phil off of his back, playfully poking his temple. “Go eat your pad thai.”

It didn’t take long before Dan had almost completely forgotten about what he was supposed to be doing. For the past hour, he had just been focused on enjoying the moment with Phil, laughing as the noiret stuffed his face with food and groaning when he insisted on watching a Christmas movie even though it was the middle of June. Over the course of the movie, he noticed Phil was easing closer and closer until he was practically sitting on his lap, but he ignored it. After a while, Phil had completely stuffed himself and was patting his own belly while resting his head on Dan’s lap, giggling as Dan ran his fingers through his fluffy black hair. Dan himself was starting to fall asleep, his head drooping forward as he yawned and rubbed his eyes with one hand. At one point he almost tipped over completely and squished Phil, resulting in a terrified little squeak that caused him to wake up right away. 

Eventually, the end credits of the movie began rolling, and Phil let out a happy little sigh. “That was a good movie…”

“M-hm…” Dan watched as Phil got back into a sitting position, giggling as his heart did that  _ flippy-over _ thing he was so used to. It wasn’t his fault that Phil was so goddamn adorable! He couldn’t help but smile as Phil tucked his feet underneath himself, yawning and causing his fangs to briefly catch on his bottom lip.  _ Now’s the perfect opportunity… just tell him how you feel, and get it over with.  _ “Philly?”

“Yeah?”

“Uh… this might sound kind of weird, but…” Dan paused, looking up at Phil’s blissful and expectant face, biting his bottom lip as he tried to figure out how to word things. “Well, uh, you… I think you’re really, um…

“Just say what’s on your mind, Dan!” Phil smiled. “You don’t need to be nervous…”

_ It’s not that easy, Phil!  _ “I’m just trying to say that… I just think you’re really amazing, and…”

“Aw, thank you!” Phil giggled. “You’re pretty amazing too, Dan…”

“I’m not done…” Dan shook his head. “I… I really, really, really…” He trailed off, unable to find the right words to say as he looked up at Phil. “I’m sorry, I can’t…”

“Dan!” Phil whined. “Come on, just tell me! You really, really, really… what?”

“Phil, you really don’t want to hear this…”

“Yes I do! Please, Danny, just tell me!” Phil begged.

Dan shook his head. “No, Phil.”

“You’ve been like this all week, you know that? You’re nice to me for a bit, then you get angry with me for some reason and ignore me, then you’re nice to me again, and it just keeps repeating!” Phil got up off the couch and crossed his arms, looking and sounding legitimately angry for the first time since Dan had met him. “I can’t do this anymore! If I’ve done something to upset you, then just tell me!”

“Phil, you haven’t done anything wrong! It’s not always about you, y’know!” Dan got to his feet, only feeling a tiny bit of remorse when he saw how Phil flinched away from him. “I’m not constantly worrying all the time, unlike you!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Phil frowned, trying his best to stand up straight and intimidate Dan.

“It means that I’m not constantly fawning over you and drowning you in attention, which you’re doing to me all the time!” Dan snapped, not even bothering about keeping his voice down. “I don’t care if you’ve got some freakish obsession with me, but the least you could try to do is give me my damn personal space sometimes!”

“I’m sorry!” Phil blurted with a shake of his head, almost tripping over the coffee table in his attempts to back away. “If you had told me you wanted space, I would have given it to you! I didn’t know, I thought you enjoyed it…”

“Maybe if you didn’t have a complete lack of understanding of social cues, you would have realized it!” Dan snapped.

“Dan, I didn't mean to!” Phil cried, protectively holding his hands in front of himself. “Please stop yelling!”

“Let me finish! I’m getting so sick of you, you never leave me alone and you keep begging for my attention!” Dan yelled, pressing his hands over his face in frustration. He had no idea why he was yelling at Phil-- stress and anxiety had simply overwhelmed his body and worked him into a total yelling fit. “God, just… you’re so  _ annoying _ sometimes, Phil!” The instant the words had left his mouth, he regretted it, his stomach sinking as Phil’s eyes filled with tears, his tiny form beginning to shake with sobs as he clamped a hand over his mouth. “Fuck… Phil, I didn’t mean it, I…”

Not giving Dan a chance to finish, Phil turned and bolted out of the room. Dan quickly ran after him and gasped when he saw the vampire had flung open the bedroom window and had one leg hanging out. “Phil, no! Don’t--” But Phil ignored him, turning into a bat and flying out the window before Dan could stop him. Letting a stream of expletives fly out, Dan collapsed on the floor, his hands trembling as he realized the full impact of what he had just done.  _ I hurt Phil… I yelled at him and called him annoying… all because I was too afraid to tell him I loved him. I didn’t mean any of those things! I took my anger out of him and I hurt him…   _ Beginning to cry quietly into his palm, he wrapped his arms around himself, rocking back and forth as he dug his fingers into his upper arms. He’d yelled at Phil, insulted him, and made him cry, and now he had absolutely no idea where he was. He let his sobs grow in volume until they physically hurt him, punching through his bones like tissue paper as he tried without success to catch his breath and calm down. 

When Dan finally managed to calm down, he tried his best to think logically as he shakily got to his feet and sat down on the edge of the bed.  _ You’re not going to fix the situation by crying… you need to find Phil as soon as you can. He might have flown into a building and gotten hurt or something already… you need to find him and apologize. Hopefully, he’s still willing to take you back…” _


	7. Chapter 7

The forest was the most obvious place Dan thought of-- it was pretty much the only place Phil knew about and was familiar with besides his apartment, so it made sense that he would hide there. However, it wouldn’t be easy-- there were still other vampires there that could attack him, and he was willing to bet they wouldn’t be as affectionate as Phil. He stuffed his backpack with one of his sweaters for Phil to wear, a letter opener to defend himself, a flashlight, and a small blanket to wrap his friend in if he was still in bat form. He put his smiley-face mask on before climbing out the window and dropping down the fire escape. It was quite late, almost midnight, so the cover of darkness gave him an advantage.

Once Dan reached the familiar foreboding forest, he made sure no one was around before scaling the fence and carefully avoiding the nasty-looking spikes at the top before dropping to the other side, ripping his shirt in the process. Fishing the letter opener out of his bag, he hid it up his sleeve so he could yank it out at a moment’s notice, beginning to walk around with his flashlight as he tried to look for any bats that could possibly be Phil. He knew that Phil had blue eyes in his bat form, which he prayed wasn’t a common eye color in vampires so he could be easy to find. 

After about an hour of searching, Dan had found several squirrels and a somewhat mangled possum carcass, but no Phil. Letting out a huff of frustration, he leaned against a tree to rest for a bit, trying not to cry. He missed Phil so, so, much… he just wanted him back. He would have willingly taken a stab to the chest if it meant he could have his Phil back. Biting his bottom lip, he got back to his feet and ruffled his hair anxiously.  _ That’s enough rest for now… you’ve got to find Phil. _

Then, suddenly, there was a flutter of wings from high above Dan’s head. Dan instantly looked up and could have cried with joy when he saw a large bat with blue eyes circling above him. “Philly! Thank god, I was worried I wasn’t going to find you…” His voice caught in his throat as the bat landed on the ground and turned into a female who obviously wasn’t Phil. “Um…”

“Hey there…” the girl smiled, her fangs gleaming in her mouth as she took a step towards Dan. “You look tasty… what’s your name?”

“Get away from me…” Dan shook his head and took a step back.

“Shy, huh?” The girl giggled and got right up in Dan’s face, her hand shooting forward and latching around his throat. “I think you’re  _ really _ cute…”

Without even thinking, Dan yanked the letter opener out of his sleeve, squeezing his eyes shut and jabbing it at the girl’s face. There was a squishing noise of some kind and a shriek of pain, and Dan peeked through his fingers to see what had happened, only to quickly look away-- he had somehow gotten the letter opener right in the girl’s eye. She wasn’t bleeding, but it still looked as though she was in quite a lot of pain.

“You bitch!” the girl shrieked. She somehow managed to grab hold of Dan and throw him to the ground, sitting on his chest and squeezing all the air from his body. Both hands returned to his neck, squeezing hard and tight as she leaned close to his ear and spoke in a whisper. “You’ll pay for that, cutie…” Dan let out a garbled little gasp, pulling the letter opener out of the girl’s eye and jabbing it into her side over and over in an attempt to weaken her. No matter how hard he tried, though, it didn’t work. The girl giggled at his efforts, simply tightening her grip on his neck. “I was going to make it quick before… but you’ve lost that privilege. I’m gonna make it nice and slow and painful, just for you.” 

Dan attempted once more to stab the girl, but paused when he saw a shadowy figure running at top speed towards the two of them on the ground. Before he could question this, the girl was tackled to the ground by the figure, allowing him to gasp in some air once the grip on his throat had disappeared. As he managed to get into a sitting position, he managed to get a look at the face of the figure, who was standing in front of him in a protective position. It was Phil, tears welling in his eyes as he screamed at the girl at the top of his lungs. “Get away from him! Leave him alone, he’s mine!”

“Jesus… if you wanted to turn him, you could have just asked nicely…” the girl frowned, angrily pressing a hand over her injured eye. Letting out a sigh, she turned into a bat and soared off through the forest. 

Phil waited until she was gone before turning around and pulling Dan to his feet. “What on earth are you doing here? You could have gotten hurt…”

“I was looking for you!” Dan frowned.

“Oh, is that how it’s going to be? You treat me like trash but every time I start crying or try to run away you suddenly care about me?” Phil frowned, crossing his arms and looking down at the forest ground. 

“Phil, that’s not true…”

“I don’t believe you.” Phil shook his head.

“I’m telling the truth, Philly! I…”

“Don’t use that nickname right now, okay? I’m not happy with you.” Phil sighed. “Look, if you want to talk to me, you can talk, but we need to go somewhere safer, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt…” Gently taking hold of Dan’s forearm, he began pulling him through the forest at a moderately fast pace, which surprised him.  _ I didn’t know he could go that fast… _

Soon, the two reached a somewhat jagged and rocky slope, which Phil lead Dan down until they reached a large glassy pond. Dan couldn’t help but let out a tiny “wow” as he looked out over the pond, looking at the reflection of the moon and stars in the crystal-clear water. He watched as Phil looked up at the sky, shivering a bit. He had tugged his sweater down a bit so his wings could stick out, flapping quickly as though he was trying to take flight. Dan frowned and rested his hand on the small of Phil’s back, sighing when he felt his little body shaking with suppressed sobs. “I’m sorry…”

“You’ve been saying that a lot. I don’t think you know what it means…” Phil sniffled. He looked up at Dan with a soft, shaky whimper. “I just want to know…”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything… what did I do wrong?” Phil frowned. “I just wanted to make you happy… that’s all I wanted! And I can’t even do that right…”

“Phil… look, I didn’t mean a single one of those things, okay? I’ve just been so upset lately… I didn’t mean to take it out on you, honestly.” Dan put both of his hands on Phil’s shoulders, offering him a sad little smile. “I know you just want me to be happy… and you’ve been doing a great job…”

“It doesn’t seem like it… I’m too annoying,” Phil insisted, his voice cracking on the final word. “You said it yourself…”

“That’s a lie…” Dan shook his head. “You’re not annoying, Phil, not in the slightest. I love how caring you are, I love how you just want to comfort me… you’re like a little ball of sunshine…”

“Dan… I’m a vampire. I’m not supposed to be like this… we’re just supposed to suck blood and be gloomy all the time! I’m not how I’m supposed to be! I’m… I’m some sort of freak…” Phil whispered.

“Phil!” Dan tilted Phil’s chin up, his heart throbbing painfully fast in his chest. “Phil, don’t ever call yourself a freak… that’s not true at all…” When Phil didn’t respond, he kept speaking, his mouth running on autopilot. “You’re not a freak just because you’re happy, Phil! You’re so perfect… I love when you’re happy, I love when you’re clingy around me, I love when you always come up with something to cheer me up, I love how adorable you are…”

“...you really mean all that?” Phil asked with a happy little chirp, rubbing away his tears with his sleeve.

“Of course I do! I… I love you.” Dan looked away as he said the words, too afraid to meet Phil’s eyes. When Phil didn’t respond right away, he looked up, his eyes widening a bit when he saw that Phil was giggling quietly, still crying in the process. “...Phil?”

“Nobody’s ever said that to me before…” Phil replied. “...do you mean it?”

“Of course I do.” Dan nodded. “Do you, uh… feel the same way?”

“Yes! I’ve felt the same way for weeks, silly!” Phil laughed, nuzzling his head against Dan’s neck. He let out a gasp when Dan wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, grabbing a hold of the front of his hoodie to keep from falling. “Dan?”

“Fuck…” Dan whispered, hiding his face in Phil’s shoulder as he started crying. When he felt Phil beginning to shake him to try to talk to him, he looked up with a smile. “They’re happy tears, don’t worry…”

“Oh… happy tears. That makes sense!” Phil giggled. “So, ah…” 

After a few seconds of silence, Dan asked, “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes…” Phil nodded, looking down at the ground as an adorable blush graced his features.

Letting out a soft laugh, Dan gently put his hands on either side of Phil’s face to tilt his chin up, unsure where to begin. Then, he carefully leaned in until their lips just barely brushed over each other, moving slowly to gauge Phil’s reaction. Phil seemed to be fine, so he let the gap close all the way, his heart doing that amazing  _ flippy-over _ thing. His lips were so soft and tasted like cherries and chocolate, a combination that was unexplainably amazing. Unlike the countless other kisses he had experienced, this one was perfect… and Dan certainly used that word sparingly. Everything felt practically ethereal, from the way Phil’s hands were wrapped around his neck and playing with his hair, to the way their lips disconnected and reconnected with smaller little kisses in between. 

After a seemingly infinite span of time, the two pulled apart with a tiny popping noise, soft giggles escaping both of them. A few more seconds passed before Phil made a tiny chirp and poked Dan’s cheek. “Boop!”

“Aw…” Dan smiled and fluffed up Phil’s hair with his fingers. “We should probably get home now, huh?”

“Uh-huh…” Phil nodded. “Don’t worry… I’ll make sure no one tries to chomp on you.”

~~~

Things felt substantially different when the two arrived back at the apartment. Phil was clinging tightly to Dan per usual, but the brunet felt nothing wrong with it this time. It felt completely natural, with no degree of awkwardness with it. Dan curled up on the bed and Phil joined him, eagerly resting his head in the crook of his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around his midsection. He looked so happy and relaxed, chirping quietly as his wings remained flat on his back. Dan couldn’t help but lean over and kiss his cheek, giggling when he felt Phil’s wings flutter with excitement.

After a while, Phil started getting tired, yawning and hiding his face in Dan’s chest. Dan gently lifted Phil off of him, ignoring his soft whines of protest. “You can’t fall asleep on me, Philly… you turn into a bat when you sleep, remember? I don’t wanna squish you…”

“But I don’t wanna sleep in the closet tonight…” Phil lay back down on top of Dan, kissing his cheek and nestling back into his earlier position. “I wanna stay with you… besides, it’s not like I can suffocate if you lay on me! I can’t die, silly…”

“I know, but… I still don’t want to crush you…”

“Please?” Phil begged, looking up at Dan with big eyes as he blinked slowly, a tiny little smile spreading across his face. “Please, Dan?”

With an affectionate sigh, Dan tugged the blankets up and let Phil curl up on his chest, wrapping his arms around his waist and kissing the top of his head. “Fine. Get some rest, okay?”

“Okay!” Phil leaned up and kissed Dan once more on the lips, his fangs catching for a split second on his skin. “I love you…”

“I love you too.”


	8. Chapter 8

Dan awoke to the smell of burning plastic and the blaring of the smoke alarm coming from the kitchen. He was on his feet in seconds, skidding on the hardwood floors as he tried to reach the source of the chaos. He was hardly surprised when he entered the kitchen and saw Phil holding a smoking frying pan away from him, squealing frantically as he waved a dish towel at it. “Dan! I don’t know what happened, help me!”

“Phil…” With an almost deadpan expression, Dan took the pan from Phil and doused it in freezing water from the sink, putting the blaze out immediately. “Phil, what exactly did you try to do?”

“I wanted to make some pancakes for you but I messed it up…” Phil frowned. “I didn’t know you were supposed to take the butter out of the packaging when you mixed it with the other stuff!”

“You didn’t take the wrapper off the butter?” Looking into the doused pan resting in the sink, Dan saw that amid the mixture of scorched pancake ingredients there was indeed a stick of butter still wrapped in the paper packaging. “Phil, oh my gosh…”

“I’m sorry…” Phil mumbled, taking a few steps away from Dan and looking down at the floor. Dan felt his heart break when Phil started crying, hiding his face in his hands and shaking his head slowly. “Don’t yell at me, please…”

“Oh, Philly, don’t cry… I’m not gonna yell at you, don’t worry…” Dan stepped forward and pulled Phil’s hands away from his face, kissing his forehead. “Next time, if you’re not sure what you need to do, just ask me.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise, though…”

“Well, now you know for next time that you need to remove the wrapper from the butter, okay?” Dan smiled. “Now, how about we…” Before he could finish his sentence, he heard his phone vibrating loudly on the coffee table in the sitting room. With a sigh, he picked it up and saw that PJ was calling him, immediately answering. “Hello?”  
“Dan! Dan, have you looked at Twitter?” PJ asked, his voice practically vibrating with excitement.

“No… I just woke up and put out a kitchen fire,” Dan sighed.

“Is that sarcasm?”

“Nope. Now, why exactly are you screaming at me before ten in the morning?” Dan huffed.

“I’m gonna try to explain this as best as I can, okay? So, do you remember that weird vampire law that was proposed a few years ago?” PJ asked.

“You mean the one that was supposed to basically treat vampires like humans and let them come out of the forest? But then it got repealed because people are dumbasses?” Dan asked.

“Well… yeah, that one. But you’re never gonna believe this… you want me to tell you?”

“Yes, spit it out.”

“You  _ really _ want me to tell you?” PJ giggled.

“Yes! Spill it, Peej,” Dan grumbled.

“It got passed. I don’t know how, but it got passed!” PJ sputtered. “I guess that whole thing that ‘nobody likes vampires’ isn’t true anymore, so…”

“Really?” Dan could feel his eyes widen and his heart practically flip over in his chest. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”  
“I’m not! That’s why I asked if you looked at Twitter or not, everyone’s freaking out over it!” PJ replied. 

“Oh my gosh… oh my gosh, I’ve gotta tell Phil!” Dan laughed, beginning to bounce up and down with excitement. “He’s gonna be so happy…”

“Oh, does he like vampires?”

“PJ, he literally  _ is _ a vampire!” Dan laughed. “God, I’ve been keeping that from you for so long ‘cause I thought you would get upset…”

“Dan, it was pretty obvious. His face was practically blue when he blushed and he had wing outlines on his back. You weren’t hiding it very well,” PJ laughed. “Look, you can go tell him, okay? I’ll bet he’ll be happy.”

“Yeah…” Dan laughed.

~~~

“So… I’m allowed to leave the house? I don’t have to stay inside all the time?” Phil asked.

“Yeah! We can go everywhere in London now…” Dan smiled. “If you think my cooking is good, then wait until you try all the other restaurants nearby…”

“...and I can be your real roommate now instead of your illegal one?” Phil grinned.

“M-hm! No more hiding under the bed when the landlord comes,” Dan laughed.

Phil thought about this for a bit, then said, “Aren’t they worried about the other vampires biting people?”

“I guess they’re just hoping they can restrain themselves around people,” Dan shrugged.

Finally, after a long pause, Phil said, “Can we go get food?”

“Really?” Dan giggled. “We can literally go anywhere you want in London, and the first thing you think of is food?”

“What? I haven’t had breakfast yet, and I’m hungry…” Phil sighed.

“Aw…” Dan couldn’t help but lean over and kiss his cheek, playfully ruffling his hair in the process. “Tell you what… my friend Louise owns a diner nearby, how about we go get breakfast there? We can explore for a bit afterwards if you feel up to it.”

“That sounds good!” Phil nodded.

Soon, the two were walking through the heart of London, hand in hand as they observed the scenery. Things seemed to be working well between the humans and the vampires roaming the city so far-- in fact, people seemed to be very welcoming towards them. There were large groups of vampires and humans talking on the street, sitting in restaurants, sharing cars and buses… the list went on and on. Dan couldn’t help but feel that familiar flutter in his chest again, but for a different reason.  _ Wow… it’s actually working out better than expected. They seem to be getting along really well! _

Phil was acting like a little kid on Christmas Day-- his eyes were lit up with excitement, his entire body bouncing in place as he took in everything. He let out a soft little “wow” as Dan pulled him into the diner, giggling when the little bell hanging over the door signalled their entry. “This is amazing, Dan…”

“Dan! Hi there!” Dan smiled when he saw Louise leaning over the counter, waving to the two of them. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, this is Phil. He…”

“Oh my gosh!” Louise let out a high-pitched squeal of excitement when she caught sight of Phil’s wings poking out from his shirt. “You’re a vampire? That’s amazing!”

“Thank you!” Phil laughed, running right up to the counter and turning around so Louise could see his wings. “You can touch them if you want…”

Louise reached out and gently ran a finger along the top of Phil’s wings, letting out an excited giggle. “Wow, they’re so soft! Oh my gosh, they’re so cute…”

Phil giggled and hid behind his hands, his wings flapping quickly as he blushed. “Thanks!”

“Eek, I’m sorry… it’s just so cool!” Louise laughed. She turned back to Dan with a grin. “You guys can take any open booth, okay?”

“Got it.” As the two sat down at a booth near the counter, Dan was happy to see there were at least four or five other vampires sitting in the diner. Some were sitting with each other, while some were sitting with humans. As he handed a menu to Phil, he couldn’t help but smile at him. “You’re so cute…”

“Not as cute as you…” Phil giggled, hiding his face behind the menu.

~~~

“Dan, I don’t know why you’re doing this,” Phil giggled as he clung to his arm. “I don’t need all these things!”

“Yeah, but I still want to! If you have the ability to turn into a bat, then you’re going to be the happiest bat the world’s ever seen,” Dan replied firmly as he lifted a massive watermelon into the shopping cart. “Bats like fruit, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t have to be a bat to eat fruit! If anything, it’ll be more of an effort to eat it that way!” Phil watched with a little smile as Dan scurried around the produce section, picking up small plastic boxes of strawberries and grapes before practically throwing them into the cart. “Dan, those strawberries are huge, I’ll choke on them!”

“I can cut them up for you or something…” Dan took hold of Phil’s arm and pushed the cart with the other, practically dragging him into another aisle. “Okay, as you’ve noticed, the apartment is  _ fucking freezing _ all the time, so you need a blanket that you aren’t going to suffocate in.” He bent down and picked up two different baby blankets, one in pink and one in blue. “Which one do you want?”

“The pink one,” Phil replied. He reached out and touched the blanket, then smiled. “It’s fuzzy…”

Chuckling to himself, Dan put the blanket in the cart and was about to turn around when he felt Phil tugging on his sleeve. The vampire was blushing just the slightest bit and was pointing at a small orange pacifier with a pink flower decoration on the end. “That’s for babies, Philly… do you need that for something?”

“It’s… it’s embarrassing, but sometimes when I’m in bat form I like to suck on things… it’s kind of relaxing,” Phil murmured as he looked down at the floor, anxiously crossing his feet over each other. “It’s weird…”

“Aw, Phil… that’s not weird at all, honestly! We can buy it if you want.”

“Thank you… I just thought it was stupid or something. I guess it’s a bat thing,” Phil shrugged as he dropped the pacifier into the cart. He still seemed a bit embarrassed, however, as he refused to look at Dan until they paid for their items and left the store. When they returned to the apartment, he murmured something about being tired and shuffled into the bedroom, where he promptly turned into a bat and hid in the closet. Dan decided that it was best to leave him alone and busied himself with the food he had bought, cutting up some of the fruit and putting it in the fridge in case the vampire wanted it later. 

When an hour had passed, Dan decided to wake Phil up-- it was getting quite late, and he was surely hungry. But upon entering the bedroom, he noticed that the bat wasn’t hanging from the hanger rod-- rather, he was lying on the floor in a mess of clothes that had fallen off their hooks, still in bat form as he squealed and twitched in his sleep. Frowning, Dan bent down and gently picked Phil up, being sure to only hold the fuzzy part of his body and not his wings.  _ Is he having a nightmare in bat form? _ “Phil… Phil, wake up! You’re having a bad dream…” 

But Phil didn’t respond, his wings fluttering quickly and his claws grabbing at nothing. Beginning to panic, Dan began poking Phil’s stomach, since he wasn’t able to think of any other way to wake him up without the possibility of injuring the tiny creature. This worked after several minutes, since the action caused Phil’s squeaking to stop and his eyes to pop open. However, the little bat was still shaking wildly, his wings painfully slapping against Dan’s hands as he kept panicking.

“Phil, you’ve got to calm down! You’re gonna hurt yourself…” Dan’s eyes darted over towards the shopping bag from earlier resting on the bed. Holding onto Phil with one hand, he pulled the baby blanket out of the bag and somehow managed to wrap him up with it. The action prevented Phil from flapping his wings and potentially injuring them; however, he was still panicking, his glassy blue orbs wide with fear. 

As a desperate attempt to calm him, Dan pulled out the pacifier and quickly popped it between Phil’s fangs, not even bothering to tear the price tag off the end beforehand. Almost instantly, Phil stopped squealing and shaking, his eyes closing and his pointy ears perking up. Fascinated by how instantly he had calmed down, Dan sat down on the edge of the bed and stuck the batty burrito between his thighs, softly petting the fuzzy top of his head as he spoke to him in a hushed voice. “There we go… that’s much better, isn’t it? You don’t need to be scared…”

Eventually, Phil let out a squeak and allowed the pacifier to fall out of his mouth, turning back into his regular vampire state. He was still sitting in Dan’s lap but quickly vacated, hiding his face in his sleeve. “Sorry…”  
“Why are you apologizing? Come back over…” Dan stood up and scooped Phil into a bear hug, smiling when the smaller male immediately clung onto him like he was a stuffed toy. “I’m not upset, Philly…”

“Yes, but… doesn't it look silly?”

“Not at all! I think it’s cute…” 

“Really?” Phil’s eyes lit up at this, the tension in his body gradually fading away as he broke into a huge smile. “You mean it?”

“Of course I do! You, sir…” Dan paused to kiss Phil’s forehead lovingly. “...are an  _ extraordinarily  _ cute bat.”

“Hehe…” Phil hid his face in Dan’s chest, his fingers toying with the hem of his shirt as he hummed quietly. “Thanks…”

With Phil still clinging to him, Dan managed to lie down on the bed, letting out a tiny sigh as he looked up at his loveable boyfriend. “Did you have fun today, baby?”

“Yeah!” Phil giggled. He flopped off of Dan and lay next to him on the bed, curling up into his side.

“That’s good…” Dan looked over and watched as Phil lifted up his hand and kissed his knuckles. “Tell you what… how about we go to the cinema tomorrow? I think you’ll like that.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s basically a giant dark room where they play a movie on a big screen. I know you love watching movies, so…”

“I’d like that.” Phil let out an exhausted little chirp, pressing his face against Dan’s shoulder. “Y’know…”

“What is it?”

“This day was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what can i say i'm a slut for tooth-rotting fluff and cuddling :)))


	9. Chapter 9

For the fifth time that week, Phil had insisted on visiting Louise’s diner, this time for lunch instead of breakfast. Dan simply had to comply-- he found himself unable to say no to the adorable vampire whenever he stared up at him with those big, innocent eyes and pleadingly clung to the front of his shirt. The two had promptly set out and gotten a booth in a cozy corner of the diner, practically cuddling as they spoke quietly to each other.

“So after this we can go see another movie, ‘kay?” Dan suggested as he playfully bumped his head against Phil’s shoulder.

“Yeah! Maybe we could go shopping after that?” Phil asked.

“Aw, sure!” Dan nodded and looked up momentarily; however, he frowned when he saw a man he had never met in his life standing before their table. “Uh… can I help you?” 

“Oh, you certainly can. You mean to tell me that you’re a fan of vampires?” the man frowned, crossing his arms as he glared down at them.

Dan let out a tiny huff of air through his nose-- he knew where this was going. “Look, buddy, we’re not in the mood for an argument right now. Can you leave us alone?” he asked as he kept a protective arm wrapped around Phil’s shoulders. 

“I can’t believe you… those stupid vamps were bad enough in the forest by themselves! It shouldn’t be brought into public,” the man snapped.

“Dan… can we go?” Phil whispered, frantically tugging on Dan’s shirt sleeve.

Dan let out a huff of air and glared up at the man, silently begging for somebody to come over and help. “That’s your opinion. What do you have against vampires, anyways? You shouldn’t make assumptions about them when you’ve never personally met one.”

“I already know enough about them to know that they’re nothing but bloodthirsty killers! That little bastard is gonna suck your blood in your sleep before you know it!” The man jabbed a finger in Phil’s direction, causing him to whimper and hide his face in the collar of his hoodie.

“Okay, that is  _ completely _ uncalled for. If you insult him again, we’re gonna have another problem entirely, got it?” Dan stood up and jabbed a finger right in the man’s face, his temper rising with every passing second. “I can handle a lot of things, but you insulting my boyfriend is  _ not _ one of them.”

“Is there a problem over here?” Louise stepped over to the table, adjusting the ties on her apron as she glanced back and forth between the angry man and Dan.

“Yes there is! Are you attempting to tell me you allow creatures like  _ him _ in this place?” the man demanded, pointing at the cowering vampire curled up in the corner of the booth.

“Well, yes, but I don’t see the problem. Has he done something to upset you?” Louise asked.

“Let me think… he’s  _ existing _ , for starters.”

“Louise, let me deal with this guy.” Dan went around to the other side of the booth and attempted to crack his knuckles in a menacing fashion; however, he just ended up hurting one of his fingers. “Ow…”

“Sir, I don’t want to have to deal with a fight… I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Louise sighed as she turned towards the man. 

“I’m not leaving! If anything, make that  _ freak _ get out!” 

“I told you to stop insulting him!” Dan slammed his hands on the table and caused it to rattle.

“ _ Stop yelling! _ ” Phil screamed. “Stop it! You’re hurting my ears!”

_ Fuck! I forgot his ears are sensitive… _ “Come on, Phil… let’s get out of here,” Dan replied in an attempt to calm the hysterical vampire down. Before he could even attempt to move towards Phil, however, the man quickly moved around to the other side of the booth and held on tight to his arm. “Get your hands off of him!” A split second later, Phil let out an ear-piercing shriek as the man grabbed one of his wings and gave it a harsh tug. He immediately turned into a bat and attempted to fly away; however, in his panic, he ended up smacking into a wall on the opposite side of the room and tumbling to the floor.

As Louise and several other customers forced the man out of the diner, Dan hurried over to where Phil had fallen, diving beneath the table and scooping the little bat into his arms. Phil was squealing wildly, flapping only one of his wings as he struggled in Dan’s hands. The other wing was pressed tight to his fuzzy body and looked somewhat bent. Dan tried to unfold the bent wing to inspect the damage, but Phil chirped and smacked Dan’s arm with his free wing as if to protest.

“Let me look at your wing, baby…” Dan insisted.

Phil let out an indignant squeal and nibbled at Dan’s thumb, his eyes wide with pain and possibly fear. Since he wasn’t wearing a sweater or anything that he could wrap Phil in, Dan chose to lower him down the front of his shirt, wincing a bit as his tiny claws dug into his chest. Holding onto the bat with one hand through his shirt, he began making his way towards the exit.  _ Did that guy hurt his wing? I need to get Phil to a doctor in case it’s something serious… _

“Dan! Is Phil okay?” Louise asked as she hurried over to him.

“I don’t know… I’ve got to take him to a doctor!”

“You can borrow my car if you want!” Louise dug in her pocket and handed her keys to Dan.

“Thank you so much!” Dan nodded before running out the door, keeping Phil held close to his chest.

~~~

Dan sat in the waiting room of the hospital, his leg anxiously bouncing as his eyes blankly stared at the repulsive puke-green carpeting and the outdated magazines lying on a nearby table. The doctors hadn’t told him what was wrong with Phil-- they had simply whisked the tiny bat away and told him they would need to perform several tests on him. During the waiting time, Dan had rushed home and gotten some things that he hoped would make Phil feel better-- the baby blanket and the pacifier from a few days ago, one of his favorite sweaters, and a small bag of multicolored mini marshmallows. He had bundled everything up into a large galaxy-print backpack, which was now resting between his ankles on the floor. He  _ hated _ the hospital with a burning passion, from the ugly too-bright white walls to the medical equipment found around every corner to the sounds of anguished cries coming from every other room. All he wanted to do was have Phil be healthy and happy… in fact, that was honestly the only thing he needed.

Soon, a doctor stepped into the waiting room and called his name. Dan quickly swung the backpack onto his shoulder and followed the doctor down one of the pristine white hallways. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He appears to have fractured one of the bones in his right wing,” the doctor replied with a small sigh. “He’ll have to stay overnight for surgery, and after that he won’t be able to be in his bat form for three weeks while it heals.”

“Oh.”

“He’ll be going under anesthesia soon… would you like to say goodbye to him before the surgery?”

“Yes.” Dan followed the doctor through the maze of hallways until they reached a rather large room where four or five surgeons were bustling about getting ready for the surgery. Phil had returned to his human form and was lying on his tummy on the surgical bed with a sheet draped over the lower half of his body. Now that he wasn’t struggling and squealing with pain in Dan’s arms, the brunet could fully see the damage inflicted on his wing. His right wing was partially crumpled in and was twitching a bit; in fact, it looked somewhat inverted in the middle. Frowning, Dan walked over to Phil and gently patted his head. “Hi, sweetheart…”

“Dan?” Phil’s eyes immediately lit up, his uninjured wing flapping quickly and a weak little smile coming over his face. “Dan, I’m scared… I’ve never had surgery before…”

“I know, but it’ll be fine. They’re gonna put you to sleep, and then when you wake up you’ll be all better.” Dan reached down and held one of Phil’s hands, using his free hand to play with a strand of his soft black hair. “I know you can do it…”

Phil sniffled and tried his best to nuzzle Dan’s fingers, but he wasn’t able to lift his head up enough to do so. “I love you…”

“I love you too…” With tears welling in his eyes, Dan kissed Phil’s forehead, then moved out of the way for the doctors while still keeping hold of his hand. He watched as one of the surgeons murmured something to Phil, then gently pressed a mask over the lower half of his face. Phil’s eyes widened a little bit, but then slowly shut, his mouth dropping open just a tiny bit to reveal his little fangs. Sniffling and hiding his face in his sleeve, Dan sadly left the room and went back down the hallway before leaving the hospital.

The apartment was much too quiet when Dan arrived home. Usually, it would be filled with various sounds created by Phil, whether he was watching a movie and laughing hysterically the whole time or hanging from the ceiling as a bat and begging in the form of chirps for more food. Resting his backpack on the floor by the door, Dan wrapped himself up in Phil’s favorite blanket and dove right into his bed, the tears he had been holding back all day spilling forward as he began sobbing into his hands.  _ Phil doesn’t deserve this… just because of some stupid guy, now one of his wings is broken. He’s so scared and upset-- he sounded like he was going to cry when I was talking to him before they put him under!  _ The thought of Phil alone in a hospital room, frightened and injured, was enough to make Dan start crying even more.

Dan eventually managed to calm down, but he didn’t feel any better. He went into the sitting room and put on a movie, but he wasn’t able to concentrate on it at all. In an attempt to comfort himself, he hugged a pillow to his chest and pretended it was Phil. He imagined that his boyfriend was asleep on his lap with his head nuzzled against his chest, his soft breath tickling his neck and his hands clinging tight to his shoulders. But this didn’t help, as just the mere thought of Phil caused him to start crying again. He hid his face in the pillow, shaking and whimpering as he tried to get himself to stop.  _ Come on, stop being such a baby… what would Phil think if he saw you like this? Come to think of it, he’d probably just kiss you and tell you it’ll be fine. But if he was here, then I wouldn’t be crying in the first place! _

After several hours had passed, Dan had enough motivation to make some dinner, but he didn’t eat that much. He lay in bed afterwards staring up at the ceiling hugging his pillow, sniffling softly and rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. He tried his best to think of the positives-- he would be able to pick Phil up tomorrow, and he would be fine… he just wouldn’t be able to fly for a while while he healed.  _ He must be in so much pain, though… his wings are so delicate, and that guy just crushed one of them! I’m surprised he just has a fracture and nothing else.  _ With a sigh, he rolled over onto his side, eventually drifting off into a restless sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Phil seemed quite peaceful when Dan entered his hospital room the next day. He was lying on his side taking a nap, his uninjured wing fluttering slowly as he smiled in his sleep. Dan sat down by his hospital bed and gently shook his shoulder, smiling as Phil slowly woke up. “Hi…”

“Dan!” Phil immediately pulled Dan into a hug, squeezing him like a plush toy as he nuzzled his face into his curls. “I missed you so much…”

“Aw, I missed you too…” Dan’s eyes drifted over to Phil’s back, taking in his heavily bandaged right wing. “How’s your wing doing?”

“It’s kinda sore, but I think it’s okay… the doctor said I can’t turn into a bat for a few weeks. They also said I have to take some kind of medicine to make sure I heal right. I guess I have to come back in two weeks to get my stitches out, too.”

“We can pick that up when we check out. You ready to go home?” Dan asked.

“Yeah… I don’t like it here. It’s scary…”

“I know, pumpkin… I don’t like it either.” Dan helped Phil get to his feet, reaching into his backpack and pulling out the bag of marshmallows he had bought for him. “Here you go.”

Phil gasped, letting out a little laugh as he hugged the bag to his chest. “Thank you so much!” He leaned up and kissed Dan’s cheek, nuzzling his face with his nose. “You’re the best…”

“Nope!  _ You’re _ the best.”

When the two left the hospital, however, they were greeted by a very unwelcome sight-- the same man from the previous day standing outside the hospital doors. Dan instinctively wrapped an arm around Phil’s shoulder, keeping a safe distance from the man as he tried his best to sound intimidating. “What the hell do you want?”

“I’m surprised your little freak didn’t have to get his wing amputated,” the man smirked.

“Dan, don’t…” Phil shook his head. “Let’s just go…”

“Listen, I don’t know why you keep bothering us, but you need to stop. We’ve done nothing to you,” Dan snapped. He began escorting Phil towards Louise’s borrowed car, but stopped when the man stepped right in front of them. “Seriously? Get away from the car.”

“What’s the matter? You scared?” the man snarled.

“Um, you’re a grown man stalking us and screaming about how my boyfriend shouldn’t exist. If you don’t stop I’m calling the police.” 

When the man still refused to move, Dan attempted to shove him out of the way, but the man stopped him. “Don’t. Let him do it.”

“What?”

“Don’t defend him. Let him prove how upset he is… unless he’s too much of a freak to try to fight back,” the man snarled. Phil didn’t respond, simply hiding his face in Dan’s shoulder with a squeak. This only caused the man to begin laughing. “I knew it. I wonder what would happen if I broke that other wing of yours too…”

“Stop it,” Phil whispered.

“Maybe I’ll stop if you quit being such a stupid baby,” the man laughed, now talking exclusively to Phil. “Tell you what… how about you just sit by while I have a go at beating up your boyfriend? Would you like that?”

“I said stop it!” Quite suddenly, Phil squeezed his eyes shut, closing his hand into a fist and swinging it quickly at the man’s face. There was a sickening crack, and the man tumbled to the ground, his nose dripping with blood. Dan gasped and watched as Phil protectively stood in front of Dan, shielding his body with his own as he pointed at the man. “Don’t you  _ dare _ hurt him!”

Almost immediately, the man shakily got to his feet, spitting at Phil’s feet as he turned and walked away. Phil waited until the man was a great distance away before breaking down, dropping to his knees as he started crying into his hands. Dan immediately knelt down and pulled Phil into his arms, trying his best to calm him down as he rocked him back and forth. “You’re alright, Phil, he’s gone now… you’re safe now…”

“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Phil sniffled. “I don’t want you to get hurt…”

“I know… I’m so proud of you, pumpkin, that was amazing!” Dan tilted Phil’s head up and pushed his sweaty hair out of his face before kissing his forehead. “You don’t need to cry, you’re okay…”

“But my hand hurts so much!” Phil whined. He held out his hand, and Dan saw that his knuckles were badly bruised. “I didn’t know  _ this _ would happen!”

“Well, you hit him right in the nose… plus that guy probably had a pretty thick skull,” Dan shrugged, provoking a little giggle from Phil. “It doesn’t look like it’s broken… you might just have to put some ice on it.” He placed a few kisses on Phil’s knuckles before helping him to his feet. “How about we go home and watch a movie, okay? I can put a compress on your wing to help it feel better, if you’re up to it.”

“That sounds nice…” Phil smiled.

~~~

“Phil… you’ve got flour all over your jeans.”

“Oops!” Phil let a little burst of laughter escape as he glanced down at the dusty white marks covering his legs. “Sorry, it just gets everywhere!”

“You can say that again.” Dan examined his own flour-covered hands with a chuckle. “It’s gonna be ridiculous trying to clean this up…”

“Yeah…” Phil’s gaze drifted towards the cookies baking in the oven. “How long is it going to be until they’re done?”

“Forty-five minutes. That gives us enough time to do this.” Dan reached over and pulled the wooden spoon out of the mixing bowl, holding it up to Phil’s face. “Go ahead.”

“...what am I supposed to do?”

“Lick the batter off, silly!”

“What, with my tongue?” Phil seemed somewhat confused, his eyes widening a bit as he stared at the spoon.

“Yeah! Go on, then!”

“Uh, okay…” Phil timidly leaned over and licked a bit of batter off the spoon, one hand reaching out and gently taking hold of Dan’s wrist to hold the object still. After he did so, he glanced up and saw Dan smiling at him. “What?”

“Nothing… you’re just cute.” Dan replied softly.

“Don’t be ridiculous… I’m not  _ that _ cute…” Phil smiled, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Of course you are…” Putting the spoon on the table, Dan moved over to Phil and tugged him forward by his waist before resting one hand on the side of his face. “You’re super cute…”

“Maybe a little…”

“Nope, that’s not good enough… you, sir, are the cutest vampire I’ve ever seen.”

“You’ve only seen two vampires in your life!”

“Let me rephrase that-- you’re the cutest being I’ve ever seen. Does that work?” Dan giggled, kissing Phil’s forehead. 

Phil let out a little chirp before holding onto Dan’s shoulders and standing on his tiptoes so he could return the gesture, pouting when he noticed Dan laughing. “What? It’s not my fault you’re so tall.”

“We’re literally the same height!”

“Well, you seem taller than me…”

“By an inch!”

“But you’re still practically a giant!” Phil squealed. “You’re so big…”

“And you’re a little bean…” Dan smiled, putting his hands under Phil’s thighs and lifting him onto the counter. He could feel the noiret gasp as he leaned forward and kissed him again, this time slightly rougher than before. However, not even a second had passed before he felt a sharp prick on his bottom lip. With a shriek of pain, he pulled away and pressed his finger against his lip, gasping when he pulled it away and saw blood. “Ow!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bite you!” Phil stammered. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry… it was an accident.” Dan managed a little smile, rubbing the blood off of his mouth. “I’ll get over it…”

“Are you sure?” Phil hopped off the counter, reaching up and cupping Dan’s face in his hands. “Is it still bleeding? Does it hurt?”

“A little… but I’m fine, pumpkin, don’t worry!”

“I’m sorry…”

“You don’t need to apologize, Phil…” Dan insisted. “It’s fine…”

Despite his words, Phil didn’t seem to think it was fine. Throughout the rest of the night, he seemed off-- he would answer Dan’s questions with monosyllabic replies, his head lowered as he refused to make eye contact. After an hour, he retreated to the bedroom, murmuring something about how he had a headache, leaving Dan alone in the kitchen. The brunet desperately wanted to go to him and see if he was okay, but his doubt was still quite strong.  _ He’s been through a stressful few days… he clearly wants to be alone, so let him. You’ll bother him if you keep pestering him and trying to find out what’s wrong. _

_ But he loves you so much!  _ The other little voice in his head insisted.  _ The poor guy can’t go five minutes without a hug… go in there and try to make him feel better.  _

After several minutes, Dan decided against his initial thoughts and went to the bedroom, knocking softly on the door. “Phil? Can I come in?”

“If you want to…”

Pushing the door open, Dan frowned when he saw Phil curled up in a little ball on his bed, bundled up in yet another one of his sweaters that he had “borrowed” and conveniently forgotten to give back. With a little sigh, he sat down on the edge of the bed, running his fingers through Phil’s hair as he glanced down at the teary-eyed man. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry…” Phil sniffled, refusing to make eye contact with Dan as he hid his face behind his hands.

“What’re you sorry for? You didn’t do anything wrong…”

“Yes I did!” Phil insisted with an indignant whine. 

“What did you do, then?”

“I bit you…”

“Is that what this is about? I already said you don’t have to worry about it, pumpkin, it’s fine!” Dan laid down next to Phil and rested a hand on his waist, tugging him close enough so that he could hug him. “It’s not a big deal…”

“Yes it is! I hurt you… I didn’t mean to, but I still did it!” Phil sounded genuinely distraught, his voice shaking as he spoke quickly and frantically. “W-what if I hadn’t stopped? I could have sucked all of your blood on accident…” 

“Phil, you’ve got to calm down! I…”

“It’s a possibility, Dan! I’m scared… I’m scared that someday I’m just gonna snap and…” Phil trailed off for a few seconds, but then continued: “What’s going to happen if I bite you for real? I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m worried I’m not going to be able to control it…”

For once, Dan found himself unable to conjure up the magical words of comfort that would always help to reassure Phil that everything was okay. Phil biting him was a real, very scary thing-- and their first encounter in the forest when he had been completely overcome by his bloodlust was enough to prove to him that there was no proof that Phil would always be able to control his instincts. Before he could stop himself, he felt tears dripping down his face, bitter sobs escaping him as he hid his face in Phil’s chest. Phil let out a little gasp of confusion, but he quickly recovered, hugging Dan as he rested his chin on the top of his head, rocking him back and forth gently. He didn’t say anything, but Dan didn’t mind-- while Phil found comfort in words of affirmation, he found comfort in gestures of affection. He spent several minutes ugly-crying against Phil’s sweater, his arms wrapped around his waist as he curled up in a little ball. By the time he managed to stop, his face felt scratchy and irritated from being pressed against the fabric for so long, his breath coming out in soft little sighs.

“I didn’t mean to upset you…” Phil whispered.

“You’re alright…” Dan looked up and placed a languid kiss to Phil’s jawline. “It’s okay.”

“Is it, though?” Phil frowned.

“I don’t know, pumpkin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... if you're reading this, then I'd like to let you know that I've scrapped the last few chapters of this novel. I honestly didn't like the ending, so I'll be editing and changing things until I create a proper ending. Hope you understand. :)


	11. Chapter 11

After several weeks, Phil was finally able to get his stitches out from his surgery. If anything, Dan was almost happier than Phil at this-- not only was he able to turn into his cute bat form again, but he also had full access to his adorable wings when he was in human form, which would flutter quickly in the most lovely fashion whenever they were touched. In order to celebrate, Phil had insisted that the two of them bake something, even though boiling water and making slightly burnt toast were the extent of his cooking abilities. However, Dan ended up agreeing, since he could never deny him anything solely due to how adorable he was. 

The baking ended up going fairly well-- even though Dan had to reprimand Phil about four times for sneaking bites of the ingredients, after about an hour and a half there was a batch of freshly baked, slightly scorched cookies sitting on the kitchen counter.  _ They didn’t taste half-bad _ , Dan thought to himself as Phil dug into them while sitting on the counter. “You enjoying yourself?”

“M-hm! I told you I could bake things!” Phil giggled.

“I didn’t doubt you for a second… you’re so talented,” Dan grinned. At this, the shorter male suddenly fell strangely quiet, which was extremely unusual for him. Usually, he was always rambling on and on about something, even if it was utterly insignificant. To see him absolutely quiet as he looked down at the kitchen floor was a sure sign that something was wrong, and Dan attempted to get him to speak, pushing his hair out of his eyes and lovingly tilting his chin up. “Is something wrong, pumpkin? Do you feel sick?”

“No… I’m okay, I just…” Phil sighed and looked away from Dan with a pout. “I’m just confused.”

“About what?”

“It’s kind of a silly thing, but… how come there aren’t other people like us? I mean… I’ve seen humans who’ve been dating humans, but…” Phil sniffled a tiny bit as he hid the lower half of his face behind his sleeve, muffling his words slightly. “I’ve never seen humans dating vampires before… are we not supposed to be doing this?”

“What? Phil, what’re you saying?” Hopping up on the counter next to Phil, Dan attempted to wrap an arm around his shoulders, his heart breaking when his boyfriend simply shrugged and shied away from him. “...did I do something wrong? Why’re you acting like this?”

“No, no, you didn’t!” Phil insisted, shaking his head quickly. “I just… I don’t know. I honestly just need time to think this over… you didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just…”

“Are you saying you need to take a break for a bit? Y’know, from the whole couple thing?” Dan asked sadly. “We can do that if you want to… I’m sorry if I’ve upset you at all…”

“No, no, no, that’s not it!” Phil shook his head. “...it’s just… I feel like I can’t be a good enough boyfriend… like, if you were dating a human instead, they’d probably make you so much happier…”

“Phil! Don’t say that, pumpkin…” As he gently scooped Phil onto his lap, Dan tried his best to rub away the tears welling in the little vampire’s eyes, attempting to fathom up something to say to help him feel better. He  _ hated _ seeing Phil upset, and he would do anything it took to make him happy again. “Philly, I couldn’t ask for anything more in a boyfriend… I wouldn’t want to date anybody else. You’re so perfect… I could never replace you.”

“I’m not perfect, though, Dan… not at all.”

“Of course you are!”

“I don’t believe you at all, Dan… I’m sorry…” 

With a sigh, Phil squirmed out of Dan’s arms, turning into a bat and darting from the room before he could be stopped. Dan instantly got to his feet and followed him, frowning when he saw the tiny bat hanging from the ceiling fan in his bedroom. He pulled a chair over and stood on top of it in an attempt to grab Phil, but instantly let out a yelp of pain when he sank his fangs into his hand. “Hey, there’s no need to do that! That hurts…” As he clambered off the chair, his head began to slowly fill with worries and anxiety, his only focus being how to make his boyfriend feel better.  _ I can’t stand seeing him cry… I need to make him feel better somehow.  _

~~~

“Phil?” Dan carefully stepped into his bedroom, his eyes darting about as he looked for the little bat. “Phil, can you come out for a second?” A small chirp from his closet caught his attention, and upon looking inside he saw Phil, still in his bat form, hiding underneath the soft pink baby blanket he had bought a few weeks ago, his tiny sharp fangs partially hooked into the plush fabric. He looked absolutely adorable, and for a few seconds Dan considered leaving him alone to sleep just because of how content he looked. However, he quickly pushed that idea out of his head-- he needed to convince Phil just how much he loved him, and he wasn’t going to put it off any longer.

Phil let out an indignant beep as Dan bent down and scooped him up, wrapping his arms around him and holding him to his chest so he couldn’t fly away. He kept chirping and squealing in protest as Dan carried him out to the lounge, only stopping when Dan placed him on top of one of the numerous warm Chinese food boxes on the coffee table. He fluttered over to Dan, resting next to him on the couch before returning to his human form, his eyes focusing on all the things in the room, from the stacks of blankets on the couch to the black-and-white movie playing on the television. “Dan? What’s all this for?”

“No reason… I just wanted to do something special for you. I know you love when I order food for you, and I know you love old cheesy movies, so…” With a shrug, Dan picked up one of the warmest blankets on the couch and draped it around Phil’s shoulders, lovingly kissing his forehead as he did so. “You deserve it…”

“But I didn’t do anything…” Phil frowned.

“I know you didn’t… but you deserve every single good thing in the universe, pumpkin.” Dan couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed when Phil didn’t seem to be affected by the statement, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily. “Are you hungry? I bought extra egg rolls for you, I know you love those…”

“Aw, really? Thank you…” With an excited chirp, Phil playfully bumped his head against Dan’s shoulder. “You’re the best, Dan…”

“Nope…  _ you’re _ the best. Can you put your head on my lap for a second?”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s a surprise… just do it, okay?” Dan waited until Phil did what he was told before picking up the box with the egg rolls and opening it. He broke one of them into two pieces, putting one half back in the box before holding the other half over Phil’s face. “Open up…”

“Dan, you don’t have to feed me!” Phil giggled. “I’m not a baby!”

“True… but you’re my baby. Just let me do it…” Dan laughed. He honestly didn’t expect Phil to comply, so he was pleasantly surprised when Phil opened his mouth with a tiny squeak. “Wow… okay then.” He carefully put the egg roll piece in Phil’s mouth, watching fondly as he eagerly chewed and swallowed it. “You want some more?”

“M-hm!” Phil desperately tugged on Dan’s sleeve as he picked up the other half of the egg roll, guiding his hand towards his mouth and eagerly eating the fried piece of food. “Yum…”

“You’re so cute…” Dan whispered, pushing Phil’s hair out of his face before picking up a fork and scooping some fried rice onto it. “Alright, open your mouth a bit wider, okay? It’s a big bite…”

“Okay…” Phil made an adorable little whine as Dan put the scoop of rice in his mouth, quickly chewing it and swallowing it before opening his mouth for more like a baby bird begging for food from its mother. “More, Dan…”

“Phil… have I told you how pretty your eyes are?” Dan asked softly as he scooped some more rice onto the fork.

“Huh?” Phil seemed confused by the compliment, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout as he glanced up at Dan with those big blue eyes that he loved so much. “I mean… a few times, yeah?”

“Well, let me tell you again… your eyes are the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” Dan beamed, leaning down and booping Phil’s nose. “I could look at them all day…”

“Did you get that off of Tumblr or something?” Phil giggled, a flustered blush covering his cheeks as he squeezed his eyes shut and scrunched up his nose in the most adorable fashion. “You’re so silly…”

“Just stating the obvious, gorgeous…”

It continued like this for several minutes-- Dan would give Phil a bite of food before giving him a warm, heartfelt compliment that would make him blush tomato-red. It was a pretty lengthy process, as Dan would always wait until Phil accepted the compliment before he let him have more food, but it seemed to be working. Phil seemed to be accepting the compliments more and more, not even attempting to protest them at this point and instead just blushing and nuzzling his face against Dan’s hand each time. By the time they had finished off the Chinese food, Phil’s face was a deep crimson, soft giggles escaping him every couple of seconds. “Dan…”

“Are you full, baby?”

“Mm, definitely… what was all that for?”

“What’re you talking about?” Dan smirked, even though he knew perfectly well what Phil was referring to.

“All those compliments, silly! Why were you saying all those things?” Phil asked, gently crawling into Dan’s lap and running his fingers through his curls. “Did you… mean all those things?”  
“Of course I did! I meant every single one of them…” Dan slipped one hand underneath the hem of Phil’s sweater and kissed the tip of his nose with a grin. “I hated seeing how upset you were earlier… I wanted to make you feel better. You know I love you more than anyone else in the world, right?”

“I know you do… I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking earlier!” Phil pouted. “I just… I was worried you would get tired of me at some point. I’m not nearly as good as a human can be, y’know…”

“Phil, love, that’s not true at all… you’re better than any human could ever be for me…” The look of pure affection that filled Phil’s eyes upon hearing his words made Dan’s heart absolutely melt, and he couldn’t help but lean over and kiss one of his fluttering wings. “You’re so perfect… I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

With a happy little squeal, Phil leaned forward quite suddenly and began covering Dan’s face in affectionate little kisses. Dan couldn’t help but gasp and giggle at the adorable gesture, scrunching up his nose as Phil kissed his eyelids and cheeks. “Philly! That tickles, love…” 

“Mm, I don’t care… you’re too cute.”

“Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to be complimenting you, silly!”

“But you’re so cute…” Phil pouted.

“So are you, but it’s my turn to shower you in love and compliments,” Dan replied with a smirk. “You don’t have to do anything except relax and enjoy it, alright?”

“Fine…” Phil huffed. “Can I at least pick something for us to do now?”

“Go ahead.”

“Can we take a bath together?” Phil requested in a timid tone, reaching up and clinging to the collar of Dan’s shirt. “I’ve been wanting to take one all day, and… since you said all those things, I kinda want you to join me…”

“That sounds nice… sure! I’ll be there in a few minutes, love, okay?” Dan replied, ruffling Phil’s hair with a smile. From Phil's tone of voice, he had a feeling that Phil wanted a tiny bit more than “a bath together,” but he wasn’t going to bring that up just yet. What mattered was that in this current moment, Phil was happy. And that was the only thing that mattered.


End file.
